Cycle's End
by PariahKing
Summary: Taking place after the events of ME3, Tali and Shepard try to re-establish their lives after the fallout of the Reaper War. (Follows events as depicted in the MEHEM mod for Mass Effect.) Rated M for Mature, given violent and sexual themes.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Hello, thanks for coming to this page. What you're currently reading is a post-ME3 ending story that continues from events as they happen in the MEHEM mod. (If you don't know what it is - essentially the same ending as high EMS destroy, but you blow up the catalyst with the red death ray before you meet him and no "good" synthetics die. There's also no stranding segment, Shepard and crew reunite shortly after the blast.)

This particular story focuses on the fallout of events as they relate to Shepard and Tali, the pair trying to establish normal lives after the turbulent Reaper War.

One more thing I'd like to mention - TheSneakyFox spent several hours reviewing and offering suggestions for this story. (As well as friendly "reminders" to actually get around to writing it.) I shudder to think what this document would look like without her many helpful criticisms.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the story. Feel free to leave a review, I'd be happy to have your feedback.

* * *

Admiral Hackett could feel the cold water droplets running down his uniform, but blocked out the sensation. Some people had begun to leave the procession when the weather turned for the worse, but the intense glare Hackett bore into the assembly kept most glued to their seats.

Palming his hands over his handwritten notes, he briefly glanced down at the podium and resumed his speech.

"This was a war against our own people. Friends, family, lovers...they were enslaved, by technological mutilation or indoctrination. For generations writers and poets have described the depths of Hell, but nothing that they ever put to paper matched the horrors from dark space. Despite this, one man held a fighting force together, in conditions that would shatter any company's morale. Admiral David Anderson purchased hope and spread it among his people.

"We are here today because of the efforts of these fallen men and women. Without Operation Hammer, there is no final beam push. Without the final beam push, there is no hope for victory, no hope for salvation. Galactic civilization is buried amongst so many other failed cycles.

"No one man or race saved the galaxy. Untold millions dead stand united in paying the price. But this war was won on the razor's edge. And without Anderson's leadership...I truly believe we would have fallen off.

"Anderson dedicated his life to service. But those who knew him well will forever miss him. He left behind many friends and soldiers, proud to serve under him. Most of all, he left behind the love of his life, Kahlee Sanders.

"But in his sacrifice, he left every member of every race a future. Anderson didn't live to see tomorrow. His eyes never saw the sun rise on a galaxy free of Reapers.

"But Anderson did not die alone."

Shepard could feel all the eyes in the room turn toward him. A strange burden fell upon him, the collective weight of their consciousnesses suddenly being dropped on his shoulders.

"In the end, man stood against man, the worst of us against our own redemption. I can only see it as proper that, in that final moment, we rejected the elements of human nature that drive us apart."

"Anderson was the last soldier to die in the Reaper war. That was his gift, and his gift to us."

* * *

Shepard looked out the tiny, smeared window of the shelter. The dreary weather from the funeral was still raging on. The dark, grey ruins of the city evoked dark memories and nervous fear. Shepard's strained subconscious was still waiting for a cannibal or husk pop out from the rubble.

_"London. It always rains in London."_

Anderson's voice echoed throughout Shepard's mind. There was a ghostly quality to it, the half remembered echoes of those who had passed on. Time and circumstance would eventually wash away the clarity of recollection.

Shepard sighed. There'd always be the vids, but it wasn't the same.

There was a light knock on the door. "Feeling any better?"

Shepard's heart skipped a beat. It was Tali. "Hey - come in."

Tali walked in energetically, with her arms outstretched. She promptly dropped them upon seeing Shepard's expression. "Are you alright?" she asked, coming to stand hear him.

He gave her a tired smile. "It's...been a really emotionally draining day."

"If you need more time, I can come back later."

A pang of guilt hit Shepard. "You've already been waiting for hours." Shepard pointed to the ruins outside the window. "I don't want to leave you here all by yourself, there's nothing to do."

Tali clasped her fingers together nervously. "No, no. It's all right. I've been keeping myself busy. Kasumi's been assigned here for Crucible salvage, so we've been playing games to pass the time."

Shepard raised an eyebrow. "Games?"

"Oh, yes. We put some little, colored stones in a circle. Then there were rocks, paper, and scissors."

Shepard laughed. "Non-essential power still out through most of the city?"

Tali's hidden eyes shiftly darted left. "I cancelled my Galaxy of Fantasy subscription anyway."

Shepard grabbed Tali's torso and pulled her onto the bed. "You know, I could use a nap. And this room is so cold..."

Tali tilted her head slightly and smiled. "From a technical viewpoint, I think the problem stems from a lack of external warmth."

"I think you're confusing medicine and engineering."

"Shut up and hold me."

* * *

The fog seemed to clench Shepard's throat - each puff of breath seemed to clog his lungs with a foul smog. He tried to reduce his movement to a crawl, but the wheezing pain was consistent. Something was constricting his chest, paralyzing him.

"Commander."

The sound reverberated against the remnants of many dead trees. The echo persisted, silencing any terrified complaints from Shep's inner voice. Mindlessly compelled by the adrenaline coursing through his veins, Shepard began to shift his legs back and forth. Each step was a forced, mechanical plod. Shepard felt the innards of his knee begin to warp - the muscle was not going to last much longer.

Tauntingly, the odd gait of the stranger seemed to strengthen with each degeneration of Shepard's body. The pain and horrible echo were killing him physically, but the thing behind him drove him forward. If he turned around, if he saw the beast...surely, he would die.

The Commander's knees finally popped. With a thud, he crashed face forward to the ground. A cold, bony appendage grabbed Shep's side, and he lay motionless in horror as his body was slowly turned to face the beast.

Shepard clamped his eyelids down, but the beast's unnatural strength was having no difficulty prying them -

* * *

The rapping on the door came like a gunshot. "Commander?"

Dazed, Shepard popped out of bed violently. The world around him came in so vividly and suddenly - his mind was struggling to process the drastic shift in circumstance.

Mumbling to himself, Shepard threw on some clothes and opened the door. Behind the wooden frame stood Admiral Hackett. A quick look of surprise darted across his face, before returning to its usual impeccable professionalism. "My apologies Commander. I wasn't intending on waking you."

Shepard looked down and realized he had thrown on the wrinkled clothes from yesterday. Embarrassed, he instinctively ran his hand over his chin. The gruff feel of a five o'clock shadow was yet another reminder of the hygiene he had -

"...Commander?"

Shepard blinked and realized he had gotten lost in assessing his appearance. "I'm sorry, Admiral. I've been feeling a bit unwell."

Hackett nodded. "That's what I've heard, Commander. You apparently haven't left your room for the last three days. Is everything alright?"

Shepard peered behind him and noticed the copious amount of trash and food wrappers on the floor. "I've been having a lot of trouble sleeping. The explosions caused by the Crucible ended up damaging my hearing - I can't really sleep or focus on anything. The ringing never stops."

The sides of Hackett's lips involuntarily curled downward. "I'm sure that isn't helping, Shepard. But there isn't...something more?"

Shepard twitched slightly, the suggestion throwing him off-balance. This...was not his usual routine. But it seemed only natural to need time to recuperate, to adapt to post-war life. Really, his obsession with the Reaper war was the only thing keeping Shepard from collapsing, the all-consuming need to protect-

"Why isn't Tali here, Shepard?"

Shepard blinked. "She said she wanted to spend a few days with Kasumi. There's apparently an engineering project they're working on together, and they're spending the next few days in orbit."

Admiral Hackett shook his head. "I...hear things, Shepard. And, frankly, seeing you and this apartment in this shape is confirming all of the rumors coming through the grapevine.

A sense of deep dread and shame began coursing through Shep's body, as if he was physically trying to shrink from the embarrassment. He had been so thoughtless, so self-absorbed -

"I know you're here to boost morale for the rebuilding effort. But..Shepard, if anyone sees you like this...it was wrong of me to ask you to come back to this place. These ruins, this battlefield is triggering something awful in you."

Shepard's awareness hit full throttle and he jerkily moved his arm in rapid denial. "I can't turn my back on everyone here. People still need my help."

Hackett hung his head low. "No, Shepard. I know it's hard to hear, but you need to help yourself. If you walk out looking like a corpse, hopping out of bed at 5 PM in wrinkled civvies, that's not going to do anything but concern all of us."

The Admiral placed his hand on the Commander's shoulder. "I'm asking you, as a friend, to leave Earth. You've done enough." Hackett gestured his head toward the picture resting on Shepard's dresser. "If not for yourself, for her."

Shepard walked a few steps backward and sat on his bed. He had held everything together for so long. Collapsing his face in his hands, he tried to process the dozens of trains of thought pulsing through his head all at once. So much to process...

Hackett sat down next to Shepard and gently rested his arm on the Commander's back. "The Alliance won't turn its back on you Shepard. I won't let the galaxy forget what you've done."

Hackett took a deep breath. "No soldier wants to admit they're not ready to serve, especially when the wound comes from deep inside. But I believe in you. Tali believes in you. We'll get you through this."

Shepard straightened up, temporarily bolstered by the display of confidence. "Thank you Admiral."

"No, Shepard. Thank you."

* * *

The tiny ship was barely bigger than a shuttle, but it was still crammed wall to wall with every form of metallic junk.

"For firing ballistic death into every corner of space, the old girl's held up pretty well. There's not much salvage left." Kasumi peered over what looked like the shattered remnants of a small gear. "You think this is anything useful?"

Tali shrugged. "Hm...looks to be a piece of charred metal."

Kasumi dropped it into a ziplock bag. "And that's one more requisition ."

Tali crossed her arms disapprovingly at the thief.

Groaning, Kasumi pitched the hunk of scrap. "Oh fine. They're paying me peanuts for this anyway. I just want to do my salvage quota and get out of here."

"It _is_ boring," Tali said with a sigh. "But the Sol Relay is still under repairs. It's not like we can go anywhere interesting." Tali's mind flashed to Rannoch. She knew, of course, about the peace that had finally liberated the quarians from their nomadic fleets. But she had never let her heart truly grasp that she would return to see it someday. It would have been too easy to become too emotionally attached...suicide missions have a way of deterring duty. But somehow, she and Shepard...

Shepard. He had seemed like such a wreck - what returned after their tearful goodbye felt like a shell of the man he was. John had come back to her, but at what cost? It was irrational and silly, but Tali felt responsible for the pain Shepard was in. Had her refusal to let him go forced him to carry on after his time? Did...

"Are you okay, Tali?"

A tear ran down Tali's cheek. "Shepard's been miserable ever since we came back to London. He...he's been a total wreck. That's why I'm up here with you, going over scrap metal...he doesn't want me around anymore." Tali's body slid down against the wall, slouching over. The tears began to pour down her face. "I didn't want to do this to him, I just wanted him to come home and be happy..."

Kasumi sat down next to the dismayed quarian. "Shepard's illness isn't your fault, hon. He's seen a lot of terrible things, had to make a lot of terrible choices." Kasumi paused and looked her friend directly in the eyes. "He's been under a lot of stress trying to make the galaxy safe for the love of his life."

Tali sniffled. "I just... I don't know what to do. He's helped me at every turn, but now that he's the one hurting? I can't do anything."

Kasumi smacked Tali's knee. "Damn it, Tali. You know better than that." Kasumi leaned over gently and pulled Tali in for a hug. "Shepard values you more than anything else, Tali. I should know - I've read his private messages."

Tali pulled back startled. "You've read the mail I've sent to Shepard?"

Kasumi's eyes darted shiftily away. "I understand privacy. I skimmed_ those_ messages. With the booty dancing."

There was a strong pause of silence.

"You know...I am a cyberhacking expert. I can teach you better encryption methods. Then you can email all the risque smut you want."

Against her better judgment, Tali giggled. "I think I'll be alright. Just don't read anymore of my intimate messages. Those are for John's eyes only."

Kasumi leaned in and whispered, despite being alone with the quarian. "A friend of mine named 'tactical cloak' passed me on a secret from Alliance HQ. The Sol Relay's already been fixed - it just hasn't been zoned for public use yet." Kasumi's eyes darted toward the viewport, showcasing the endless stars. "If you and Shep were feeling sneaky..."

Tali tilted her head slightly. "Hm. I bet Admiral Hackett would let us leave early if we asked politely. There are perks to saving the galaxy, after all."

Kasumi nodded. "That's hardly any fun. But you're probably right. He already agreed to talk to Shep after I combed through all of those depressing extranet messages he sent to his mom."

"Wait, what?"

* * *

Twisting to one side, the pencil's tip rolled off the desk and onto the floor below. Shepard sighed softly - the graphene blowout had smudged all over his "art." The rough and simplistic shapes had not taken a long time to sketch, but putting images on paper had always been trying for the Commander. He was far better at aiming a pistol than guiding a brush.

Shepard crumpled the ruined image of so many trees, tossing it on the ground next to so many other failed doodles. The disconnect of what he was thinking and his ability to project it into the world had finally boiled over. Annoyed, Shepard ran the side of the pencil quickly across a loose sheet of paper. A minute later, he was done, and smiled in pride at successfully creating a big grey blotch.

Shepard pulled out a fresh pencil, one of the few survivors from the fruitless session. It was time to begin the next project - the ocean and its many secrets flooded John's memory, and he began to draw a simple wavy line...

"Shepard?"

_Tali. _Shepard went to rush to the door, but thought better of it. A repeat experience of his encounter with Hackett wasn't desirable, especially with his significant other. After a brief check, Shepard found himself to be generally clean, with the exception of some stinky breath. "One moment," he called out, as he rushed to the sink and began brushing his teeth.

Shepard felt a light tapping on his shoulder. "I have a key, you know."

Shepard grinned helplessly, showcasing the white foam all over his teeth. "Give me a kiss."

Tali popped off her mask. "Rinse out your mouth and clean up, and I'll give you more than that." Tali closed the bathroom door lithely and Shepard could hear the familiar sounds of desterlizing sprays and cleaners...and a cumbersome suit falling to the floor.

Eagerly, with the foamy paste still in his mouth, Shepard hopped in the tiny shower. Spitting the toothpaste down the drain, he rinsed himself thoroughly but expediently. As much as he was excited to reunite with Tali, he didn't want to get her unnecessarily sick.

Shepard popped on some boxers and creeped out to the small apartment's bedroom. There he found Tali, lying under the covers. Wordlessly, Shepard slid under the sheets and drew her close to his body. Holding her tightly, he felt her bosom brush against his skin...and her hands groping his lower backside. Tilting his head to the side, Shepard began to meld his wet lips with hers. Sparks began to fly when Tali ran her tongue over his, and soon, they began to make up for lost time.

After, they held each other silently for a long time. Eyes mutually shut, they drifted away from time and space.

Shepard, his head cleared through the physical release and peaceful serenity, was comfortable. It would be so easy to put off talking to her...

Shepard flipped over in bed and battled the temptation to give way to slumber. Already he could feel his body slipping away, the tension easing out of him...

But Tali deserved better. She was more than a fling. And he hadn't been upfront with her recently. Shepard gently shook Tali, to make sure she was awake.

"I'm sorry, Tali. I've been pushing you away...I'm..." The words struggled to come out of his mouth. "I'm ashamed of myself. And, well...it embarrasses me for you to see me like this.."

Groggy, Tali blinked. "Shepard," she slurred. "I wouldn't..." She yawned deeply. Rubbing her eyes, she began to complete her train of thought. "I'm here for you, Shepard. I know everything's not okay, but..." She gently rubbed the Commander's knee. "We're going to get through this."

Shepard stared into the ceiling. A sound began to clash with the ringing in his ears - the pitter patter of rain against concrete.

_"Whether or not we see the end of this mission, I know you'll carry it through."_

"I just don't..." Shepard turned to watch the lightning strikes from the storm.

Tali pulled Shepard into her arms. "You'll get better, John. It won't always be like this."

Shepard couldn't contain it anymore. "I feel like it should have been me who died, and not Anderson. It...none of it feels 'right' to me, like I've just put off the inevitable. I keep thinking everyday that I'm going to just up vanish. That..." Shepard hung his head in shame. "That I'm doing you wrong, trapping you in my personal Hell." His face contorted in pain. "You deserve better."

Tali felt her emotions blare, and for a moment she almost panicked. But getting emotional wouldn't do anything to help Shepard. Taking a deep breath, she put on a brave face. "None of it was right Shepard. Nothing can make watching your friends and loved ones die okay. But it won't help them to pass away too."

Shepard sighed. "You're right, I just...I feel like I've stolen from them, robbed them of their future for my own benefit."

Tali felt a pang of anxiety but did her best to put it out of her mind. "Shepard, you risked your life just as much as everyone else. You aren't at fault for the Reaper's crimes." She looked up briefly. "Everyday, something reminds me of one of our friends. Just running through weapons racks always reminds me of Kal...I was so happy when he made it back home, but he ended up dying on Palaven anyway.

"I like to think that our friends would be happy for us. Joining them...wouldn't really help in anyway." Tali put her hands in Shepard's. "Anderson was your friend, Shepard. He would have wanted only the best."

Shepard somberly looked into his lover's face. "You're not wrong. It's just easy to forget when I'm constantly surrounded by the costs of the battle." Mentioning London triggered the memory of the Admiral's visit in John's head. "Thank you for asking Hackett to come by. It helped me realize how bad things had gotten."

Tali subconsciously blinked before remembering Kasumi's plundering of their mail. "Oh...um, sure...no problem, Shepard." She didn't want to hide information from John, but the extra aggravation would do little to help.

Shepard smiled and pulled the covers up. "It's been a great night, but I think I need some rest."

Tali outstretched an arm, as if trying to physically grab his attention. "Shepard," she said, urgently. "I meant what I said on Rannoch." She rested a hand on his face. "I won't ever give up on you. I want this, more than anything."

Shepard went to say something, but he didn't want to cry in front of Tali - even for a good reason. He pulled her close, and they cuddled as the night faded.

* * *

Shepard's back was sore - the tree's stiff bark was not a comfortable resting place. He tried standing up, but his armor felt so heavy...he couldn't move. He began stripping off the metal carapace when a familiar sound echoed in the air.

"Commander."

Throwing off the last of the protective garb, he began to run in the opposite direction until the familiar aching returned. Blowing out his knees wouldn't do him any good. Taking cover behind a tree husk, he built up the courage to defend himself. He didn't want to directly stare at the beast, but perhaps taking a glance...

The figure's face and skin was obscured, but the blue-grey camo and brimmed cap was unmistakable. "Anderson," Shepard called hesitantly.

"Come home, Commander."

Shepard closed his eyes and ran toward the source of the sound. He took a swing, but his arm didn't connect with any flesh, but a void. He felt himself being pulled in, his flesh ripped from his body, the skin of his eyelids being torn...

* * *

"Shepard."

"Shepard!" Tali strengthened her grip on the Commander, pulling his body back and forth.

"Wake up!"Shepard sat up, dazed. "What...where?"

Tali seemed to be almost quivering. "You were shaking and tossing in your sleep, moving like someone set you on fire."

Shepard felt a pang of guilt - he had already done enough to upset his love and alarm his friends. They needed encouragement, not more things to worry about. "It...just a dream. Everything's okay." He held his hands out briefly for inspection. "See? No burns."

Tali let out a sigh of relief. "I'm glad you're okay, Shepard. When you started shaking, I thought you might be having a seizure." Tali paused, biting her lip. She knew it might not be a good idea to ask but..."What were you dreaming about, Shepard?"

The visions, dreams...since the fall of Earth they had plagued his sleeping mind. Trees...so many dead...he began to speak but his gut collapsed like a cheap accordion, unwilling to spit out the words. "...falling, stuff like that." He looked away from Tali and mumbled a "I don't really remember."

Tali patted her lover on the shoulder. "Well, it's over John. It's all right now. I'm here."

Tali's concern was touching but...something about it felt a bit coddlesome, like he was some kind of young child who needed to be looked after. He may have been struggling to keep it all together, but damn it, if he could defeat Reapers he could deal with a bad dream.

Shepard did his best to downplay his nocturnal activities and began to get dressed. He threw on some deodorant before groaning and realizing he still needed a shower. All the time alone had really done a number on his sense of routine - it was like the military ethic had leaked out of his body with his blood, on the Citadel...

Tali's face still expressed more concern than Shepard would have liked, but she dropped the subject. "I called Admiral Hackett yesterday. He gave us permission to use the Sol Relay and travel out of the system tomorrow."

Shepard blinked. "I knew we were going to leave London soon, but I didn't realize the relay was operational." Pride suddenly came to the forefront of the Commander's mind - he wasn't going to leave London with nothing to show for it. "I still wanted to talk to some people, do a few things."

Tali frowned. "...you still haven't left our apartment." She clasped her hands together nervously. "This place is really bad for you John. It's not normal to have dreams like this."

Shepard's face sunk, and Tali released she had pulled a pin from a verbal grenade. She tripped over herself trying to verbally defuse it. "It's okay, I don't mean it like that, I..."

Shepard frowned. "No, I understand. I'm - "

Tali collected herself and swiftly interjected, not wanting Shepard to fall into an emotional mire. "No, really, John. You're going to be fine, I want to be with you wherever you go. But staying here isn't going to help you."

"Where are we going?"

Tali's brain suddenly jammed, as if it needed a system reboot. "I...just assumed you would want to come with me to Rannoch." Involuntarily, her heartbeat began to ratchet upwards. "Is it alright if we go there?"

Shepard smiled. "No, Tali. I've been excited to settle a home with you on Rannoch - I just wasn't sure if we were going there directly or if the fleet needed your help somewhere else first."

Tali exhaled, privately kicking herself for being so paranoid. "Great - I've already rented a charter ship. I'll send them the coordinates right away."

"Wait - I didn't think we had any extra money. How did we afford renting a ship?"

"Er...a local charity. Donated it in your honor."

"Really? That's strange."

"Mm," she murmured. The thief, while morally ambiguous, was an excellent source of credits.

* * *

He had of course insisted on carrying the bags himself. "It's a several mile walk from the apartment, John," she protested. "We can take turns carrying our luggage."

Shepard grumbled a "I'm fine," and focused on keeping their equipment in the air and off the pavement. He had let his body go in the past few weeks and the physical challenge gave him something to invest in.

"John," she called out, pulling on the Commander's shoulder. He wobbled and put his foot into a pothole. His ankle twisted and he faceplanted onto the street's unforgiving pavement.

"Oooh, John! Are you okay?" she asked, lifting Shepard off the ground. "You really should watch out for cracks."

An adrenaline rush spread through his body - _if you just let me carry the bags, I wouldn't have fallen over._ He almost snapped at her, then thought better of it. His anger was clearly the stress talking. They were going to the world of their dreams. The moment was too good to spoil over a little physical pain.

Tali pulled out a handkerchief and began dabbing at Shepard's nose. "You're bleeding a little, John."

Shepard recoiled slightly. "I don't need babying, Tali."

Her face was hidden behind a mask, but Shepard could imagine what was underneath. The frame of her body seemed to sag under the weight of his words.

"I'm just trying to be supportive."

Shepard looked away and dropped his head. "...I know."

John handed her half of the luggage. They walked the rest of the way there in silence.

* * *

Rain...so much rain. It drizzled into his throat, falling through his head and into his mouth. His nostrils squeezed and Shepard began to gag. He was drowning in his own head - his lungs inhaled air, but spit water. He dropped to his knees and soon found himself face first in a torrent of fluid.

In desperate agony, Shepard stuck his a finger into his throat and with a final heave puked out all the excess water. Clarity flooded his consciousness as he realized he had been caught in a flood - so many pieces of wood lay strewn upon the ground, mud entombing their many branches.

Running, running anywhere seemed better than this...he ran and ran, until the reality around him let him in on the bad news - he too had been consumed by the mud. It was up to his neck and surely rising.

When the beast came this time, it almost seemed like a relief. The figure in blue grey camo pulled him out of the sea of wet dirt...

The figure was so cold...the skin hung across his bones, but did not seem attached. The rain had soaked through and the dead flesh had become translucent. The many bony joints were as plain as day. Shepard hesitated, but finally exchanged looks with the beast.

It had a beautiful face - his face - but it hung like a ruined sleeve over a hollow skull.

Shepard wanted to know who it was, but the sun insisted on rising first.

* * *

The ship jostled the Commander's frame slightly. Slowly, he scratched his back and stretched out his arms. Looking around, he realized he was in the charter ship with Tali. She was staring out a viewport, watching the endless stars glide by.

The footsteps grabbed her attention and she turned her head slightly to face the Commander. "Finally woken up, hmm? You crashed the moment we got aboard."

Shepard smiled. "Yeah, I must have been exhausted." He looked backward, as if wary for eavesdroppers. "Don't tell anyone I said this, but a certain quarian might have been right about carrying so much weight."

Tali giggled softly. "You always were too stubborn for your own good."

Shepard put an arm around her. "I can't have you staying angry at me - it's been a whole day since we've had sex."

"John, you are_ terrible_," she said, slapping the Commander's side in retort. She popped off her mask and eyed the commander seductively.

"You're lucky you have such a nice ass." The pounce ended the conversation, but the noisy racket had just begun.

* * *

The knocking felt like several thunderbolts in his ear. His body ached in pain as he sat up - something, someone was at the cabin door? Shepard peered through the peephole and saw an unfamiliar face.

"Sir, this is a shared vessel. Please refrain from lovemaking and general shouting during midday."

Shepard nodded to the closed door and did his best to slide under the sliver of blanket Tali left for him. He would have usually felt too naked to sleep without some kind of covering, but he was too exhausted to care. Tali could be...draining.

And loud. Really, really loud.

* * *

Finally, they landed on Rannoch. The trip had plodded on for what seemed like ages - noise complaints from the other passengers persisted, even at later hours. (At one point, they had been nearly forced to leave the ship and look for future transportation in the Artemis Tau cluster.) Celibacy became the norm, and the extranet filled in the gaps.

But, finally, that Hell was over.

It was a blazingly hot day - Tikkun's rays casted an oppressive humidity. As comfortable as personal space was, getting indoors was a quickly rising priority.

Shepard squinted as Tikkun spit light into his eyes. "Raan was supposed to pick us up, right?"

Tali nodded. She had planned a visit with her aunt while they set up their living arrangements. "I'm sure she'll be here shortly."

Shepard put on a brave face and did his best to block out the heat. Each minute that passed seemed to tick the temperature one degree higher. He was pretty sure he could feel the water boiling off his eyeballs.

Shepard wiped the pooling sweat off his brow and onto his shirt. The perspiration had made it look like he walked out of a rainstorm.

"Tali...it's been an hour. ...Maybe we should start walking?"

Tali looked around the empty spaceport. The entire place was empty - nobody wanted to be out in this heat. "We could do that...but there's a small problem." The pause was pregnant, filled with the tension of the moment and suffocating humidity. "Raan lives six hours away from here.

"...by aircar."

Tali expected another bad reaction out of Shepard, but he simply closed his eyes and tapped into some inner strength. "All right. In that case we'll keep waiting here until someone comes. There's no way we'll get there by foot."

The calm perplexed Tali. She thought the heat was unbearable and her suit had temperature control. By comparison, Shepard was wearing three woolen coats. The most minor provocations had set him off before. But now, events that were exhausting Tali's patience seemed meaningless to him. _Maybe London was just that bad for him,_ she mused.

She had gotten so lost in thought she didn't hear Shepard at first. "Look Tali - it's getting better, clouds are blocking out the sun."

Tali grimaced. "But Shepard..."

The rainstorm seemed to appear out of nowhere. The water beat down hard on their skulls and Tali shuddered at the drastic drop in temperature before adjusting her suit to the sudden change. Her attention turned to their luggage. "Keelah - all of our tech is going to get ruined!"

Panicking at the thought of losing her favorite engineering tools, Tali began stacking their bags over each other, arranging them to her preference. Not everything would be shielded, but all the essentials would make it.

"Tali, our clothes are gonna get soaked."

"You can buy more clothes. There are lots of clothes in stores."

"For humans? On Rannoch?"

"Well...we could get you a fitting for an envirosuit." Tali leaned over and checked out the human's soaked rear. "But you might not be able to fill out the hips."

Shepard shook his head. "Give me a break. Nobody looks good when they're wet and soggy."

"Oh really?" Tali pretended to drop some luggage in front of the Commander, kneeling over to pick it up. Noticing he had taken full attention, she flexed her posterior slightly and bit her lip to keep from laughing.

Aunt Raan honked her horn for the third time. "Children, are you going to stay in the rain all day?"

Tali's back straightened like lightning had coursed through her spine. Her rear slowly ascended into her back, as if she was trying to swallow her own butt. It was almost its own kind of gracefulness - the biped form had reached a new pinnacle of unsexy.

Wordlessly, Tali dropped their luggage into the aircar. Shepard thought of cracking a joke, but the quarian's feral eyes had burned a hole into his soul. _Somethings just can't be repressed by a visor,_ he thought, shuddering in fear.

Raan seemed to understand Tali's anxiety and didn't try to strike up a conversation. Once everyone got settled in the car, Raan threw on the radio.

"We have many stations - we even have one for ancient human culture," she said thoughtfully. Tali smiled, her mind taken off the embarrassment by Raan's gesture of outreach to John.

_I'll take you to the candy shop_

_I'll let you lick the lollipop_

_Go 'head girl, don't you stop_

_Keep going 'til you hit the spot_

Tali buried her head in her hands as Shepard completely lost it, bursting out in laughter.

Raan sat slightly for a moment. "I did not know humans had such an affinity for candy."


	2. Chapter 2

Shepard paid for his brief moment of amusement - Tali refused to so much as brush his shoulder. "Not in front of Raan," she chided. He tried to smooth things over unsuccessfully, noting that Raan had probably seen lots of perky quarian butts before.

Raan's couch was not very comfortable.

But Tali had to speak to Shepard eventually - as much as they enjoyed Raan's hospitality, they needed their own personal...space. It was going to take serious time to construct a house, so while they waited, they'd rent a nearby efficiency. The issue of costs came up again, but Tali assured them there were still plenty of funds from the "local charity."

Because they didn't intend on staying for very long and didn't want to commit to a long term lease, the apartment was less than perfect. It was remarkably tiny, threatening to redefine the meaning of the word "room." Shepard could definitely tell the architects had been quarians - walking through the bathroom door to turn sideways. It certainly was not Tali's dream home either, but she was used to living in cramped spaces.

The privacy certainly was lovely. As much as she loved her auntie, Raan could be a bit of a busybody: she liked including herself in every possible moment of the couples' time. It was touching of course, but not all the vids and activities were "family" appropriate.

The doorbell rang. Tali closed the fridge and walked over to the front door._ I wonder who that could be_, she thought dryly. Peering through the peephole, her suspicions were confirmed. It was Raan, carrying a bag of groceries. A small part of Tali internally groaned: her aunt's visits had become something of a daily event. Still, Raan was just trying to be good family._ And she lives all alone,_ came another thought, guilt piercing Tali's subconscious.

She opened the apartment door and Raan stepped inside. "I brought you and Shepard some food." Tali peered inside the plastic bags and saw various fruits and vegetables. She gracefully grabbed the bags and set them on the kitchen's counter.

"Thank you, auntie," Tali said, smiling.

Raan's eyes shifted slightly behind her visor. "You're not hungry, Tali? I was thinking lunch would be great right now."

Tali had to hold back a laugh - her aunt's excuses to come over were endearing in their own way. "That sounds good auntie. Sit down and I'll cook us a meal."

* * *

Tali gestured towards the spice rack. "These are for Shepard," she remarked, pointing to containers of oregano and garlic. They sat next to various other levo ingredients, some that seemed familiar and others that did not. In particular, the idea of eating a "bay leaf" struck Raan as unpleasant. Their dry, brittle constitution seemed like a poor choice for a snack, and Tali refused to let her place them in Shepard's salad. "No auntie, those are for tomato noodles."

Raan shook her head. "If humans will eat noodles made from tomatoes, I do not understand why they would dislike dry leaves." Tali's rolled her eyes skyward, exasperated by her aunt's complete ignorance of human culture. It was to be expected, given the quarians' prior detachment from the rest of galactic society, but it was Raan who butted into the kitchen and insisted on "helping."

Raan hunched over the counter with a large knife, slicing up a leafy and orange analogue of lettuce. It was thicker and difficult to slice rapidly, given the large seeds that lurked in the center and between folds. Tali had insisted on slicing it apart herself ("I need to learn to prepare something other than paste"), but Raan seized the cutting board from her after losing patience with Tali's slow and uneven approach. "Now_ this_ is how you prepare ch'ral."

Tali nodded, making an acknowledging "mmhm" sound. She focused on chopping apart the human lettuce that would serve as the basis for Shepard's salad. She felt a slight surge of pride at how quickly and easily she separated the leaves from each other. Dropping the whole head of lettuce in an oversized bowl, Tali poured melted nacho cheese and chunks of pan-fried chicken into the ceramic container. Lovingly, she placed five whole strips of bacon and a slice of white bread on top.

Raan looked upon the monstrosity her godchild had wrought. "Won't it get soggy?"

Tali shrugged her shoulders. "These were the ingredients listed for a 'ranch' salad. It's a traditional meal human settlers must have eaten."

Raan nodded her head, making an "ooh" sound as she did. It was easy to appreciate the values of rustic life - many quarians were still adapting to an agrarian lifestyle. With the disgusting human food dealt with, Raan began looking for normal toppings. "Where are the things quarians would want to eat?"

Tali pointed to a group of cupboards with blue tape over the handle, launching into an elaborate and over complicated explanation of her organization. Raan nodded, half-paying attention. Shepard's phone call from the night before drowned out any other thoughts. It had been a very brief discussion, but the ramifications...Tali had invited her for dinner very late last night. Had he already...?

"Do you know?" Raan voiced aloud.

"About what, auntie?" Tali responded curiously.

"Uhm. About the important thing that is important," she said, nervously.

Tali's brow furrowed. "No - is something wrong?"

Raan mentally kicked herself for her impulsive questioning. "...the weather, it is going to be cold."

Tali pressed a few buttons on her omni-tool and got a ping back from the Extranet. "No it isn't...they're calling for sunny weather."

Raan threw her hands in the air, exasperated. "News media, you can never trust them." A ding came from the coffee pot and she hurriedly poured three cups of coffee. "Let's take this to Shepard before his salad gets cold."

The two quarians went to set the table, but already found Shepard waiting - his attention was consumed by reading news reports about various clusters. Setting the datapad aside, he smiled and said "thank you" as Tali set his luxurious and excessive meal in front of him. Holding back a laugh, he dipped the white bread into the cheese and scarfed it down.

Raan and Tali afforded themselves much smaller portions, dripping slight amounts of yellow dressing over the dusty, orange leaves of their "lettuce." Shepard's appetite seemed far more voracious as he tried to consume the massive meal as fast as possible, taking huge bites and large swigs of coffee. Tali beamed behind her mask, absolutely delighted by his compulsive need to devour his meal._ Not bad at all for a first time chef, _she thought to herself.

Another coffee maker's ding pierced the air, chiming over the noise of Shepard chewing apart several ounces of bacon and chicken at once. Tali went to get up, saying "Shepard I'll have your coffee in a moment" before looking down upon the empty cup he already possessed. Little drops of dextro liquid dribbled down its sides, inertly clinging to the cup in a way that certainly did not mirror Shepard's insides. Panic reverberated within Tali's gut as she imagined what digestive horrors awaited Shepard.

Knowing full well the agony of chirality-based food poisoning, Tali rummaged through the several pockets of her suit, each filled with some object inappropriate for the current context. The proper medication for a low dosage liquid poisoning continued to elude her and she began to grow irritated: feelings of frustrations mixed with urgency and she lashed out at Raan. "I told you not to give him dextro food!"

Raan tensed her neck, uneasily shuffling around in her chair. She didn't really want to say anything, but it had been her mistake. "I'm sorry Tali. Coffee's just water ran over beans...I wasn't thinking about it as a contaminant."

Tali placed a hand over her visor, frustrated. "Yes, you weren't thinking." Horrible memories of levo-cheese ingestion flashed back in her brain. "Keelah, John - if you don't take medicine shortly, you're going to be sick for hours." Tali flicked open a rear pocket and unearthed two little white pills, offering both to her soon to be ill boyfriend. "The enzymes will remove the toxins, but they'll knock you out for awhile. Make sure you get into bed right after taking them."

Completely nonchalant, Shepard waved the pills away. "I don't mind if I'm sick later. I have plans for us today."

Tali shook her head fervently. "No John, you don't understand. That cup of dextro coffee will give you extreme indigestion and bloating - you won't even be able to get out of bed tomorrow. The gas will feel like a sharp knife in your abdomen." Tali seemed to physically sink into the floor. "I'd feel terrible trying to have fun knowing you were hurting yourself for me."

Shepard paused, as if formulating the answer to some complicated equation in his brain. "How long will I be napping if I take these?"

"No more than a few hours," Tali assured him. "You can always reschedule your plans.

Besides, Raan and I haven't spent quality time together in ages. We can watch a movie together while you rest - oh! Fleet and Flotilla! Can you believe she's never seen it?" Tali asked with as much skepticism as a quarian could sincerely muster.

Raan anxiously placed a hand over her suit's collar and pressed against the hard metal affixed over her neck. "No, really Tali - that's okay. I do not want to hold you and Shepard up. He was so excited about the plans for you both to -"

Shepard waved a hand, signaling to Raan her fears were unnecessary. "It's all right. I can adjust for a two hour delay."

Raan still was not entirely comfortable. "Will you still feel up to it, Commander?"

Shepard put on a smile. "Nothing could discourage me from it."

The planning of a date seemed to go over Tali's head - her inner fangirl was too excited about sharing Fleet and Flotilla with her aunt. "Go ahead and sit on the sofa. I'll make us some 'popped corns' and fire up the special edition." Beaming, Tali pulled out a heavy metal case, with a small data chip laying in the center. Various stills and memorabilia were affixed to the collector's item. "It has all the deleted scenes!"

Raan clasped her fingers together, wringing them together nervously. "That is...wonderful."

Tali suddenly returned to reality and remembered her boyfriend was about to be quite sick. She gave him a brief hug and sat a glass of water on the table next to the two pills. "I'm sorry, John."

Shepard kept up his pleasant demeanor and quickly swallowed the medicine. "Nothing could put me in a bad mood today, Tali." He walked off, already staggering slightly, and sealed himself into the bedroom. She watched him walk away, frowning and wondering how he'd feel upon waking up...until a familiar line pierced her consciousness.

"Tonight, I'm as free as the dust in the solar wind," looped the menu's intro screen. Tali let out a little eek and triggered the movie to play with her omni-tool, sitting close to Raan and almost bouncing at the proposition of sharing her favorite film.

Raan struggled to hold back a laugh. _Oh child, if you only knew. This is hardly worth celebrating in comparison with what will come._

* * *

Tali was beginning to become suspicious. It wasn't like Raan to run out of the house like that - she started to pack her things as soon as the movie ended. (Tali was barely able to beg her into staying for the post credits scene.) Usually auntie stayed until old age caught up with her and she became drowsy. But this time, Raan raced out the door at the first opportunity.

And it wasn't like she hadn't enjoyed the movie - she laughed at all the right parts and seemed to be glued to the screen for each gushy moment. She even had a thing for the lead turian himself, remarking that "Bellicon is quite fetching." ("Belli_cus_," Tali corrected, annoyed by Raan's failure to accurately reference Fleet and Flotilla's canon.)

Something was definitely up. Shepard had been acting weird and more distant than usual. He had a habit of being too stoic, like most men asked to rescue galaxies, but he was acting odd even for him. Instead of complaining or even mentioning the residual effects of food poisoning, Shepard walked out of the bedroom fully dressed and looking proper. Something was off if he wouldn't make even just one sarcastic joke about being poisoned.

"Do you have something to tell me, John?" Tali asked, curiosity oozing out of her voice.

"I do actually have a surprise for you Tali," Shepard remarked, pulling a lacy envelope out of his pocket. Tali's six fingers eagerly pried the paper open, hoping to reveal a juicy secret hidden inside. When it was finally unearthed, the official looking document made Tali shriek in surprise. Her fingers trembled holding the stationery, hardly able to believe it was really a deed in her own name.

Shepard grinned. "Remember that land you told me about? Called a few friends and got my hands on it. Things are already in motion for us to build a house there."

Tali threw her arms around Shepard and squeezed him with the ferocity of a thorian creeper. "I can't believe it's finally real..." Tali's voice was full of awe. He could hear a tiny sniffle escape her filters. "I have a house...and I have my home." Wordlessly, Shepard unhooked the mask that adorned his lover's face. Tali's luminescent eyes pierced all that Shepard was.

Tongue mingled over wet lips as the world around them fell into irrelevance. All there was were their bodies, the sensation of warm shared flesh, his touch and -

Shepard pulled away. "Come on," he breathed, clearly wound up from the brief physical exchange. "I want to show you our land."

Tali's lips curled into a bemused smirk as she rested a hand on Shepard's thigh. "I wasn't done yet."

"Don't worry. It'll be totally worth it."

* * *

After a brief trip, their aircar pulled up to an untouched reserve of land. The normally flat plains of Rannoch had tapered off here, forming a natural path to a lake below. Behind this landscape, the sun hung over many mountains. It shone a light onto the water below, which seemed to dance off the surface.

Tali's mouth formed a little circle in disbelief. "This...this is amazing." She turned in disbelief to Shepard. "We're going to live here?"

Shepard didn't answer, and instead dropped to one knee. The strange stance confused Tali, but the words that followed couldn't have been more familiar.

"Our footprints mark many paths, our boots dusty and breath winded," came the incantation. "Through hardship and hunger, loss and loneliness, our paths have finally met. Tali'Zorah, I ask that your feet may forever mark the earth beside mine, and to always lay your head down with me."

The world seemed to evaporate from Tali's mind - all the events of her life had built up to this one moment. She pounced onto Shepard, carelessly tossing her mask aside. Tears flowing, she locked her lips to his, unwilling to physically separate herself from his embrace. _Yes, John. Now and forever,_ filled her every thought.

Much time passed before either spoke. There was too many tears and embraces that had to be dealt with first. They simply sat, and watched the sunlight ebb away.

Finally, Shepard turned to his fiancee. "You still haven't said yes."

Tali, still with one arm draped on John's back, gave a tiny laugh. "Hmm...I still need more time to think about it. It's a big decision."

Shepard ran a finger from his eye to cheek, pantomiming a tear. "You know that'll hurt my feelings."

"You never let me have any fun. Fine - I'll marry you...bosh'tet."

The sun finally went down. They may have not yet built a home, but they had already paid for the land. And as the moans that echoed across the plains attested, they were putting it to good use.

* * *

Kasumi pulled the bands of the dress back - Tali felt a sharp pain as the fabric constricted her hips.

Tali looked back at Kasumi in agony. "Do you think they have something for women to wear?"

Kasumi ruffled the sides of the dress, barely focusing on the quarian's complaints. "That's what tailors are for." Examining every inch of how the fabric hung on Tali's body, Kasumi continued on. "We could have gone to a store on Rannoch, but unless you've always dreamed to to be planting corn on your wedding day..."

Tali sighed. The settlement of Rannoch had diverted the Fleet's attention from anything other than agriculture. There were still seamstresses that crafted wedding clothes, but quarians didn't place the same emphasis as humans on extravagant wedding traditions. And Tali's suggestion of just swapping out the fabric of her envirosuit had not gone over well with the thief.

Kasumi placed a hand on the small of the quarian's back and forced her to fix her posture. "Oh yes...I think this is the one."

Tali stopped focusing on the incredible boredom of the shopping trip and instead on the mirror. She was taken aback by how elegant she appeared. The white lacy dress accentuated her every curve.

"It's gorgeous...and if I breathe, I'll rip it to shreds."

"We'll get the sides altered." Kasumi leaned over her immobile friend's shoulder, careful not to rupture a single thread. "Shepard is gonna love this."

Tali clasped her hands together tightly, as she often did when anxious. "Do you think we'll be able to get it tailored in time for the wedding?" Shepard had asked Tali if she was okay with getting married sooner than later. His idea of "soon" was more like Tali's "yesterday" but they eventually settled on a date that wasn't far off but let Tali prepare the ceremony. _Or Kasumi,_ she thought. She appreciated her friend's excitement, but it almost felt like they were planning the thief's wedding.

"I've got a friend on the Citadel who owes me a favor. A rush job won't be a problem." Kasumi was so pleased with herself the words seemed to curl out of her mouth. "C'mon. Let's go checkout and leave with your wedding dress."

Tali didn't object, thrilled to be able to remove the vise. She did however think about saying something about the price - this thing cost more than weapons in the Normandy's armory. Kasumi picked up on her anxiety and downplayed her concerns. "We've got plenty of credits, Tali."

The thief had told Tali that she never gave her friend anything she had directly stolen, and only the interest collected from her "investments." Tali had some initial skepticism, but upon reflection, finding out she was the direct benefactor from Kasumi's redistribution of wealth...

Ignorance was bliss when you had to pay for a wedding and the Alliance was late on its back pay.

* * *

The blue display sparkled in the dimly lit room - each crackle set a wave of anxiety tingling through Tali. Shepard has insisted, repeatedly, his mother was an uncommonly kind woman...but this was hardly the proper way for a first impression.

"Hello?" The digitally rendered figure asked, her voice echoing through the room. The blue display masked the true coloration of her appearance, but she seemed to have brown hair and hazel eyes. Her posture screamed rigid military discipline - Tali was surprised a living human could have a skeleton so stiff. Dressed in the finest of Alliance blues, the admiral could have hardly looked more professional. This was definitely the mother of her fiance, Hannah Shepard.

Tali swallowed softly and did her best to put on a mental smile. "Hello Admiral. I am Tali'Zorah vas Normandy and I would like to marry your son," she said, verbally smashing all the words together into one long, nervous ramble. _Damn it, that already sounded awkward._

"I know," the elderly woman said, grinning ear to ear. "I'm so excited!" She went to hug Tali through the visual display before remembering the digital aspect of the call, causing her to wobble slightly as she collected herself.

"You already approve of...?" Tali looked down at the suit that covered her body from head to toe.

"Oh, of course!" She said, brushing her hands against the air. "John has told me all about you."

Tali blinked. "Really...? I never had the impression you and John were so close."

"Oh yes," Hannah Shepard said, beaming. "Before the war, he used to send me messages almost every day," she said, happily reminiscing. "He still did his best to keep in touch, of course, but dealing with...them..." A sour look crossed her face, the memory of the Reapers triggering a sense of disgust. For a brief moment, Tali could see the military side of Hannah re-emerging.

The emotions passed and Hannah's countenance faded into something more relaxed. "I used to message John all the time to see how he was doing and you were the only person I ever heard about," she said warmly, as if verbally winking. "I've had a sense for quite awhile that this was coming."

The woman's calm and aggressively gentle demeanor was a relief, but one thought nagged at Tali, like a splinter in her mind. "You don't mind..." She struggled to spit it out, as if it were some foul expletive. "...that I'm not human?"

A look of confusion covered Hannah's face, her brow furrowing and eyes squinting. "No...why would I think that?"

Alarmed, Tali went into panic mode. "No Admiral, I wasn't trying to say you did - in fact, I definitely am not thinking you are are a racist...not that if you have any concerns that it is racist, I understand there are biological issues of -"

Hannah put a finger over her lips and made a light _ssssh_ sound. "Relax. It's all right." She paused momentarily reflecting. "It may be a little early, but it would make me happy if you called me mom, instead of admiral. Would that be comfortable for you?" She asked, smiling.

Tali stammered slightly, still feeling the edges of an adrenaline rush. "Yes, of course Admiral ...Mom." It felt weird to use that title with someone she barely knew, but it seemed wiser to humor Hannah than risk alienating her. She had studied Shepard's species, but she couldn't be aware of _all_ human customs.

Tali tried to right the ship and re-establish normal conversation. "I only brought that up because it it is...less accepted among my people. My father would not have approved."

Hannah frowned in concern and again reached out for Tali, swiping at air. "If I can help in anyway to reassure him, any custom..."

Tali's eyes stung as tiny droplets of water began to cloud her vision. "That...won't be a problem."

A pained look came across Hannah's face as the memory of a message typed years ago flashed in her mind. "Oh...I'm sorry." The moment hung in the air pregnant, both too unnerved by the tension to say anything.

Hannah was the first to try and salvage the conversation. "I don't know you very well Tali. But I know you're the love of John's life. I can't put into words how excited I am for both of you - I've always just wanted John to be happy and..." She paused, moved by the heaviness of her own thoughts. "I know how much you've meant to John, throughout everything. I know that part of the reason he's still here at all is because of you."

A wave of relief washed over Tali, along with a slight sense of embarrassment at being so forwardly complemented. "Thank you, Mom."

Hannah smiled. "We're going to have a lot of time to get to know each other, Tali. Shepard has quite a few years in him yet."

Tali smiled. She was certainly in this for the long haul. "Speaking of Shepard - he's still outside gardening. Bosh'tet didn't even come in to say hello this mother." Tali involuntarily constricted her throat, her brain vainly hoping that Shepard's mother was unusually ignorant of quarian culture.

Hannah didn't seem to react to her comments and just wistfully sighed. "Ever since he went back to Earth...I'm not sure if I've spent even five minutes with John. I do miss him." She turned her attention to the quarian digitally rendered in front of her. "But I'm sure he's preoccupied at home." A loud crashing sound echoed from Hannah's visual simulation and a look of concern crossed her face. "It was wonderful talking, Tali, but my break is apparently over - some clumsy, new recruits require extra 'supervision.' We'll have to do this again soon."

Tali nodded. "Yes, Mom. I appreciate you making the time to speak with me."

"You're welcome dear," she said gently, visual display fading into the background of the living room. Tali could still hear the receiver's sound signal though, and the faint sound of Admiral Shepard's yelling came through the box. Hannah began to recite a string of the most vulgar and obscene language Tali had ever heard, each expletive phrase being more disgusting and dehumanizing than the last. Whatever the recruits had destroyed, it must have been worth a lot of money.

"Mm," Tali said, looking for the manual off-switch. _Note to self: do not ever divorce John._

* * *

Tali watched the clock anxiously. It ticked to 10:30 PM, and the thief was officially three hours late. _What am I going to do without a dress,_ she thought, squirming in her seat. Kasumi had swore up and down that the tailor would have it ready in time for the wedding. But now the day was rapidly approaching and Tali sat empty handed.

She sighed, wishing that Shepard had stayed to keep her company. He had been more solitary since the proposal, which had struck Tali as very odd. Eventually Kasumi let her know that humans often avoided each other during their wedding day, starving each other for their attention. Which was fine, but today wasn't even her wedding day. Shepard was starting a little early on making her miss him.

She was so lost in thought it was hardly a relief when the thief tapped her on the shoulder. "I brought you a present."

Tali shot up like a rocket, thrown off by Kasumi's sudden appearance. "Oh, thank you...I was so worried..." Tali turned to see the door still closed. "You didn't knock."

Kasumi put her hand over her mouth as a wry smile crossed her lips. "Doors are so cliche. C'mon. You need to try this on - if it doesn't fit, we're going on a emergency shopping run."

Tali's heart fluttered in panic at the prospect of wandering through more store aisles. Tepidly, she took the dress from Kasumi and slipped it over her frame. It was a much better fit now - her hips no longer felt like they'd been crammed together. It certainly wasn't comfortable, but she only had to wear it for one day.

Kasumi grinned widely, quite pleased with herself. "Shepard has all day tomorrow to see you wearing this," the thief mused. "And all night to see it on the floor."

Tali made a small sound of agreement but said nothing. Her silence grabbed the thief's attention.

"What's the matter?"

Tali's face reddened, and she fidgeted where she stood. "Er... nothing."

Kasumi raised a brow. "Seriously, tell me."

Her friend's demanding gaze finally broke through her embarrassment, and she sighed. "He's just been... different."

"Different?"

She fidgeted again and her attention suddenly shifted to the fabric that covered her form. "Yes, different." she repeated unhelpfully.

Kasumi's eyes widened in understanding, despite the lack of information. "You guys having problems in the bedroom?"

Her face became even more heated. "It's nothing."

"Nu-uh, you are so not dropping this." her friend eyed her warningly. "What's happening? Does he not want to have sex? He a premie? Wait, is he having trouble getting it up?"

Tali ducked her head, glaring at the floor. Kasumi had named off Shepard's possible ailments so casually, as if rhyming off different colors.

"No!" she said, more loudly than she intended. "He just seems distracted when we... you know." she bit her lip. "He's usually a lot more, er... focused."

"I'll bet. He sure sounded enthusiastic in that audio log," Kasumi quipped, her smile growing with each innuendo.

Irritated, Tali smacked the thief's wrist. "I _told_ you to stop going through our messages!"

All the vibrant energy from Kasumi's face drained away and was replaced by a solemn look. "I didn't get that from your online chats. You didn't upload...?" She broke eye contact as she continued. "The log's all over the Extranet's servers."

Tali gulped, remembering her passage to Rannoch. "Is it...how did you know it was me and John," she asked, fingers fidgeting at breakneck speeds.

Kasumi's voice dropped to an unusually low volume. "It's not labelled specifically. It's something like...'Noisy Interracial Couple on Passenger Ship.'"

"Maybe - perhaps, it's just a coincidence. We should listen to the log and double check."

"Tali I really don't think that's a good idea," Kasumi said, unusually anxious.

The quarian persisted, however, and after a moment of hesitation, Kasumi streamed the audio from her omni-tool. Familiar voices from the Normandy filled the room, but the grunting and shouting was unlike anything seen on the field of combat.

Tali looked mortified. "Well. I'm going to work on forgetting I ever heard that. I think...yes, I need sleep. Have to be well rested for tomorrow."

Feeling guilty for accidentally exposing Tali to the horrors of the extranet, Kasumi reached out to her friend. "Look Tali - it could be worse. At least there's no video, right?"

* * *

A/N: One important thing I need to accredit - the incantation was taken from (with permission) TheSneakyFox's _The Silence After. _I thought it was particularly sincere and "quarian," so I wanted that particular vision of the marriage ritual in my take of Mass Effect's aftermath.

Thank you, by the way, to the various people who left reviews.


	3. Chapter 3

A/N: Really quick, I'd like to thank TheSneakyFox again. This section took a great deal of time to edit, and her help was invaluable.

She even stayed up past 1 AM once.

That may not _sound_ abnormal, but it's like, 6 AM in Sneaky Hours.

* * *

"You're burning it."

"I am not burning it," Raan insisted.

Hannah shook her head, pulling the meat off the pan and onto a plate. "No, you're totally burning it - look, see? You cut it apart and it's all brown in the middle."

Raan looked at the juicy mess in disgust. "Why would you want to eat it when it's pink and bloody in the middle? That's raw."

"Loses all the moisture if you brown it all the way through," Hannah instructed, her military formality poking out momentarily.

Frustrated, Raan tossed the overcooked steak in the bin. "My people have been eating vegetables out of tubes for centuries, and in comparison, your 'burnt' meat tastes pretty good to us."

"We can overcook the dextro flanks if you'd like, but for the levo guests, cook it a few minutes less."

Raan rolled her eyes behind her visor and silently muttered to herself. "Might as well serve them frozen."

Tali anxiously tapped her feet. She had come into the tiny kitchen to try and help her family cook, but there was hardly even space for her presence. And with so many stoves being used at once, the little room felt like an oven itself. The heat was definitely not helping interpersonal relations.

_Really should have splurged and gotten professional catering,_ Tali thought to herself. It had been kind for them to offer their services, but it appeared they had bit off more than they could chew. The two elderly women's teamwork reminded her more of a varren and a side of beef than anything constructive. The wedding loomed closer with each passing minute, and Tali feared the pressure was about to trigger a nasty argument.

"I can't find the paprika," Hannah called out.

"I don't know what that looks like," Raan responded, half-paying attention, trying to ensure she didn't "burn" another levo-steak.

"It's granular and red," Kasumi said, popping into view. Her sudden appearance made Raan jolt, flinging her frying pan upward. The steak smacked the ceiling before landing with a _plop_, splattering juices on everyone's feet.

"Don't do that!" Raan yelled, already on edge prior from the cramped working conditions.

"My apologies," Kasumi offered, her attention more consumed with the layout of the room. "I have some suggestions."

The two elderly women looked at each other, skeptical of the thief's criticism. Hannah replied first. "We both could use a break - if you think you can help with this mess, go right ahead."

Raan laughed. "Yes, I'm _sure_ you'll have fun - we certainly have." The two adults walked out of the room, common distrust of young upstarts triggering their first real moment of bonding.

Kasumi looked at the scant amount of steak that had been cooked and placed a finger over her lips. "Tali, I'm going to need...10 more frying pans." The quarian complied and went digging through the rented plaza's kitchen closet, eventually unearthing the requested pans. Flicking on every possible burner, Kasumi started up as many meals as the kitchen could handle.

Tali stared in amazement at the precise and perfect timing of the thief's movements. Each and every plate was filled in graceful synchronization, multiple steaks being sorted and placed at once. Kasumi even balanced a plate on an outstretched leg when she ran out of free arms.

"I had no idea you were a professional chef," Tali remarked, awestruck.

"I actually went to culinary school before I started stealing," Kasumi replied. "Really, the student loans are the biggest reason I'm a thief. Cooking doesn't pay a decent salary."

More and more food was prepared, each round of meat signaling the eventual total depletion of food stock. Still bewildered by the breakneck pace and relentlessly smooth movement, Tali had completely forgotten her family was still outside. As they walked through the kitchen door, she caught a glimpse of their conversation.

"Oh, yes. Tali used to do that too. Hated wearing her suit. Used to try and run around naked until we told her she was going to get sick," Raan said, laughing.

"Mm. Too bad I couldn't tell John that about his diapers," Hannah joked, poking her elbow into Raan's sides.

Raan waved her hands, playfully dismissing the concern. "Who says you couldn't? The fact that it was true was just a happy accident."

Tali's face ran flush - for once, she was happy her expression was concealed. "Er...hello. Kasumi has made good progress cooking."

The elderly women looked at the huge mountain of prepared food, each steak perfectly seared to specification. In disbelief, they eyed each other, checking to make sure they weren't the only ones who saw the thief's unusually efficient work.

Hannah put a hand behind her head and lightly scratched, a tad embarrassed. "...Great job, Kasumi. Raan and I, will, uh...find something else to do."

Raan nervously nodded. "Yes...there's probably things we can help move or arrange in the pavilion." The pair snuck out of the kitchen, their tails between their legs.

"Something wrong?" Kasumi briefly asked, her attention still completely consumed by managing five steaks at once.

Tali shook her head. "No - they're probably just feeling a little self-conscious. They've been here for a few hours and didn't accomplish a tenth of what you have."

Kasumi chuckled. "I know - I wasn't planning on interfering, but watching them cook so slowly...it was an affront to my former professionalism to see that done to food."

"I understand. Just don't use any of your _current_ professionalism on the guests today," Tali playfully remarked.

"I wasn't intending on robbing our friends," Kasumi said, grinning. "Just the people who show up uninvited."

Tali crossed her arms disapprovingly, unhappy with where this train of thought was going.

Kasumi rolled her eyes. "Oh c'mon. There's bound to be a few gawkers. Besides, I need to get the stink of doing honest work off my hands."

* * *

The aircar's thrusters made a familiar_ pft-pft_ sound as it landed on the surface of Rannoch. The grizzled driver hit a side panel and the heavy door slowly opened up. Placing a hand over his brow to block out Tikkun's rays, Garrus spied the wedding arrangements. The area was unusually spotted with vegetation: tiny cacti trees and long, brown reeds of "grass" covered the landscape. It was practically verdant for the arid quarian homeworld.

Several seats and tables were carefully arranged across the otherwise empty landscape. A tiny building made of stone was the only enclosed shelter, no doubt used to store items and prepare for whatever events the pavilion was hosting. Everything else was disposable, temporary seating arrangements. _Outdoor weddings are more attractive on a planet where it hardly rains,_ Garrus noted to himself.

"Party of one?" asked the thief, popping into clear view. She sat behind a podium, cross-legged on top of an unusually high stool. On the lectern rested an old fashioned tome, consisting of hundreds of pages. It was thicker than his head.

"You should have a Mr. Vakarian," Garrus said, humoring the formality.

Kasumi opened up the bulky guestbook and squinted her eyes as she poured through the tome's faded pages. Rustling the archaic volume set loose a cloud of dust, irritating the turian's nostrils and forcing him to hold back a sneeze. More and more pages were flipped through until the thief reached the back end of the registry. "Ah yes. He we are."

Kasumi turned the book so Garrus could see the pages. On the yellowed pages his portrait had been printed next to his name and a short descriptor. _Vakarian, Garrus. Relation Status: Best Turian._

Kasumi pulled out a little map of the premises. "This is where the close female friends and family are helping the bride prepare," Pointing to a far-away section circled in red, a tiny little shed poking out of an otherwise flat plain. "And here is where Shepard and the other esteemed men will be fighting and throwing rocks at each other," Pointing to an even farther away section with its own little shed. "As best turian, you're entitled to maximum Shepard access," the thief remarked.

Garrus lightly laughed to himself. "That'll be nice. Quarian's really kept him busy - haven't talked to him since he left earth."

"Oh, he's totally whipped," Kasumi said, grinning ear to ear. "You know...the invitation said you could bring a 'friend,' Garrus." Her voice oozed with curiosity.

Garrus shrugged. "Haven't had much time. I've been running the Normandy since Shepard...'retired.' Lots of political bullshit means lots of symbolic ship runs, system to system." The turian tilted his head slightly and cast on a sarcastic tone. "Besides, thought I'd follow Shepard's professional example and get married to one of the crew."

The thief seemed pleased with his response. "I can set you up with Jack if you'd like."

"No, no - that's all right," Garrus responded, slightly alarmed. Hopefully the feisty biotic wasn't lurking within earshot. Scanning the crowd, he didn't find Jack but instead noticed several pompous dignitaries. "Politicians?"

Kasumi made a face. "Several of Shepard's 'most favorite people' took it upon themselves to gate crash the festivities," she said, looking in the direction of the salarian dalatrass. "News of the wedding must have leaked onto the Extranet. All of them insist they were invited and hand me these dowdy looking knock-off invitations, but they're not in my book."

Garrus frowned. "That's really too bad. Hope nobody starts a fight."

Kasumi didn't seem overly concerned. "It's okay. We can ask anyone who starts a problem to just leave." Glancing behind her to make sure Tali wasn't around, she whispered, "They have nice stuff anyway."

* * *

Garrus exhaled a sigh of relief upon seeing the little brown shack. The walk to the male encampment seemed unnecessarily long; he had begun to wonder if he had misread the map. But Grunt and Zaeed were there, having some kind of "discussion" that involved exaggerated taunts and aggressive gestures.

Shepard, however, was nowhere to be seen. _Must be in the shack_,Garrus thought, walking within reach of the two men. The weathered turian's appearance had been long noted by Grunt: when the vigilante finally got in range, the krogan scooped him up in a crushing bear hug. "Good to see you too," Garrus choked out.

"Heh heh heh. It's been too long," Grunt said, bouncing off his feet and slamming his fists together. "Glad you made it here. The old man has done nothing but whine since I crushed him in arm wrestling."

Zaeed rolled his eyes. "Krogan against human isn't a fair fight arm to arm." Glancing sideways, he continued. "Besides, I've been focusing on cardio. Got an assignment coming up after this wedding: I'm taking a group of five killers with me into the jungles of Sur'kesh on a top secret mission. Between the tropical heat and underground tunnels, I'll need every ounce of endurance." He turned his head and spat on the ground. "Can't waste precious energy focusing on silly games."

Grunt shook his head defiantly. "That's what you say now old man, but had you'd won, you'd be singing a different tune."

In typical biting fashion, Zaeed responded. "Course I would: it'd be something special for a human to beat a krogan in arm wrestling." The facsimile of sympathy crossed his face. "I'd have kept it quiet though. Wouldn't want to embarrass you in front of the Normandy crew."

Garrus tried to get between the two fighters before their argument escalated, but the mercenary had gone too far. Ignoring the turian's protests, Grunt pulled out his pistol and offered it to Zaeed. "If you're such a big shot, let's see if you can shoot." He pointed to a speck resting on a far away rock formation.

Zaeed squinted and saw the tiniest bit of stone dangling sideways, several hundred yards away. "_That_ one? With a pistol?"

"After you fail, I'll show you how it's done," Grunt boasted.

Zaeed grunted and drew his eyes to the rock. Focusing the Carnifex in his hands, he imagined the slug floating up and down against the air. Knowing he might as well be pissing in the wind, Zaeed lined the up the shot the best he could. A loud _bang_ punctuated the air and the bullet raced through the sky.

"Lucky shot," Grunt mumbled, clearly disappointed. The stone had been shorn in half by the pistol's heavy ordnance.

Zaeed smiled. "Your turn, krogan."

"We need a new target. You've already shot the first into pieces," Grunt said, surveying the landscape for another suitable stone.

"You can spit piss and vinegar, but you don't have the strength to pull a trigger?" Zaeed laughed. "Or maybe you simply have half the cojones of a real krogan!"

"Two more than you, nathak!" Grunt roared and went to fire the gun yet again. "I'll blast this rock into atomic waste!"

"Ah-hem." Garrus had struggled to politely get their attention and resorted to moderate snideness. "You're here for a _wedding_, right?"

The two renegades looked at each other for a brief moment. "Yeah, right," Zaeed said.

"Where's Shepard? I knocked on the shack door but nobody answered," Garrus inquired.

The mercenary laughed. "Oh, right. Commander's got himself into a tizzy." Grunt pounded his fists as well, eeking out another _heh heh heh_ as Zaeed continued. "Got a bit of nerves and needed a walk. Bastard's been gone almost the whole time."

Garrus frowned. "The wedding's going to happen sooner than later. We can't have a groom missing in action." He looked around, double checking that there wasn't another more..._responsible_ person around. "Where'd everyone else go?"

The two reckless men shrugged. "Kasumi said something about Shepard specifically picking us to keep him company back here," Zaeed replied. "Disappointing to be honest - the chicken fingers at the buffet were to die for."

"Beats me," Grunt said, not overly concerned with the oddity. "Maybe he wanted to have some fun before tying himself down to a ball and chain."

Garrus chose to ignore the colorful way the krogan referred to Tali. "Shepard is going to be late unless we find him and drag him back." Garrus hit some buttons and his omnitool flashed orange. "All three of us should split up and walk back to this spot by fifteen hundred hours."

The other two nodded. "A recon mission," Grunt said. "Finally something interesting."

Zaeed shook his finger. "Don't think I forgot about our little shooting contest."

Grunt sighed. "Of course, human. After the wedding I'll show you how a true krogan fires his gun."

Garrus looked at the two rivals with an icy glare and suddenly everyone was on their way.

* * *

The hot wax clung to her brow and Tali moaned, anticipating another burst of pain. "Is this really necessary?"

"Hush, child," Raan scolded. "You only get married once." On edge from all the facial prodding and poking, Tali mentally played with the idea of retorting _hopefully_ just to be contrary. Her focus was restored by the styling strip - Hannah's wrist rapidly removed the wax from the quarian's brow, piercing the tiny shack with a loud rip. The theft of her hair caused Tali's flesh to scream out in agony, but the "shaping" was over.

She sighed. While confining, there were some benefits to an envirosuit - Tali didn't have to style her hair, for one. Or have someone invading her personal space with various oils and sticks. Keeping her eyes open as they were "lined" was extremely difficult, since she was constantly afraid that she'd have her eye poked out by the pencil. Shopping for a wedding dress had been miserable, but preparing to get in one was even worse.

She went to rest her hand on her face, but Raan swatted her knuckles. "You'll smear your blush if you insist on touching it." _Oh, right,_ Tali droned to herself. She hadn't noticed how frequent the temptation to adjust her "visor" was until someone told her she couldn't.

Raan's body language oozed irritation and sitting in the uncomfortable chair for hours had put Tali in a bad mood as well, but she bit her tongue. _She just wants my wedding day to be special,_ she reminded herself. _I'm the closest thing to a daughter she's ever had. _

A pang of guilt struck Tali - her aunt and mother-in-law were painstakingly doing everything they could to help her, and she had let minor irritation get the best of her. All this consternation was selfishly unappreciative - she had seen the field of combat against the worst of the Reapers. She could steel herself and endure the trials of getting "done up." And as much as she hated all the fussing, she did want to look nice for Shepard.

"How's my husband doing?" Tali asked enthusiastically. Moving as much as hair styling would allow, she pointed her eyes toward Hannah.

Instead of the polite conversation the quarian had expected, the human admiral's face gave a minor twitch. "I haven't had a chance to talk to him yet - he's decided to hide from both the bride_ and_ his mother."

The tension in Hannah's voice unsettled Tali. "Is everything okay?"

Hannah struggled against her subconscious and did her best to mask the feelings of disappointment. "I'm sure it is. Probably just taking this last chance to screw around with his friends as a bachelor."

"I'm sure he'll come to you right after the wedding, Mom," Tali offered, doing her best to be encouraging.

Hannah seemed to brighten at Tali's display of affection. "Thank you, honey."

The bride's eyes narrowed. "If he doesn't, he's going to be sleeping on the floor instead of the bed."

Raan butted in. "Now, now, child - we didn't go through all this trouble for no reason."

Hannah smirked. "Yes, as much of a brat my son's been lately, we can't let all this eyeliner go to waste."

The two elderly women had a laugh as Tali's face radiated beet red, her embarrassment shining through several layers of makeup.

* * *

The muscular man said his name with an air of calmness. "Taylor, Jacob."

The thief had already known that of course. She had seen the familiar curvatures of his abs from what seemed like miles away, popping out of that undersized shirt of his. "Hey," Kasumi responded, bereft of her charismatic energy.

Jacob didn't seem to pick up on the cool response. He peered over the lectern and saw the guest registry. "Not going to look me up in your book? I know I'm late, but I'm not _that_ late."

Kasumi half-heartedly opened up the giant tome and flipped to a random page. "Yep, you're in." She pointed to a seating arrangement where several chairs were resting. "Wait over there for the ceremony."

Two neurons within Jacob's head rubbed together and sparked an observation. "Are you mad at me for some reason?"

"Not at all, just a long day," she lied. "Is Brynn coming along?" Saying _her_ name was like spitting poison, but she needed to keep count of how many people had arrived. If there was an unexpected turnout, seating had to be rearranged.

Jacob smiled. "No, she's at home with her mom. Doesn't want to travel far in case something happens with the baby."

_Ah, yes - your baby._

The fine restaurant flooded her memory once again, and all the nastiness that came with it. She had waited for an hour until the waiter had politely suggested - no, politely_ told_ her that he wasn't coming, that she should make an order and see if "he came later." They dumped the food on her table and she simply stared at it for awhile, watching the vapor drain out of it as it turned stone cold. After leaving a big tip and a full plate, she walked outside and into the rain, holding back tears as the sky drenched her.

Jacob had neglected to tell her that he couldn't make it, just like he had "neglected" to tell her about Brynn._ "I thought we were going as friends,"_ the boring, insipid voice had said. _"I thought you knew about Brynn."_

Kasumi knew it was vain and immature, but it was inescapable. Curiosity overtook her and she simply had to know more about "Brynn." And when the thief saw how plain, how dreary and _flat_ Brynn was compared to her own figure...it was the first time in many years she had felt truly ugly. _Of all the men in the world, of all the men I could have had,_ she would think, staring at the ceiling late at night, sprawled in her luxurious bed._ I fell for Jacob._

It had been silly to fall so hard for him, silly to put him on such a pedestal - she was too old for schoolgirl fantasies. But Jacob was something special, something that she couldn't simply take. The desire had been a mean to its own end, a stopgap to fill the void Keiji had left her with. And the feeling of rejection left her with nothing but a fresh wound and the all lifeless riches she had hoarded.

"Kasumi?" came the loathed voice.

She had drifted off - she had learned not to linger on the negative feelings after Keiji's death, but being directly confronted with her demons had overcome her resolve. "Yes?"

"Could you ping the Extranet for me? I'm not getting any reception."

Kasumi stifled a laboured groan and tinkered with her omni-tool. She tried to call up a message protocol and the client just hanged. "Looks like the comm buoys are down." It was extremely unusual for the Extranet to be _completely_ unavailable, but Kasumi didn't care. A small part of herself was happy Jacob couldn't send a message to his stupid girlfriend.

The fact that she was taking pleasure in the unhappiness of another person somehow made the whole thing worse. _You're better than this._

"Do you want me to see if I can do anything about the connection?" Kasumi asked, throttling her ego and doing all she could to seal away her smaller feelings.

An anxious look crept over Jacob's face. "I'd appreciate that. Brynn wanted me to send her a message once I got here." His lips twitched. "She'll get angry if I don't get back to her soon. So it's really important."

Distaste lingered over Kasumi's painted lip. She had always thought Jacob to be as hard as his muscles, but here he was, trembling in fear like his fiance was a banshee. He had never seemed particularly forceful or confident, but she had always taken that for secure humility. Something like pity hit her and she began to dial up every connection protocol she knew.

"Nothing," Kasumi said, disabling her omni-tool. She took a moment to let Tikkun's rays rest on Jacob. In the light, she could swear he looked like a different person.

"Oh well," Jacob said, smiling. "Thanks for trying." He walked away, abs still rippling.

This time, Kasumi's eyes did not follow.

* * *

"Shit," Garrus intoned. He had swore many times trying to track Shepard down in the plains of Rannoch, but now he was approaching dismal resignation. _We're not going to find him._

"Shepard!" Garrus hollered vainly. His booming voice echoed fruitlessly into the plains, heard by no one and signaling disaster. He was already supposed to have turned back, already supposed to check if Grunt and Zaeed had found _him_. But something told him to keep pressing on, keep going. _You can't go back empty handed, you have to find him. _

Garrus looked for _something_ - broken sticks, kicked aside pebbles. Any sign of Shepard, any hope. But each step he took was another failure and his mind began to tell him he was doing the wrong thing. It was just a feeling that told him Shepard was just a few paces forward, that his fellow chasers had not found him. He would feel silly as he raced back to the pavilion, sweaty and haggard. Shepard would already there, arm in arm with Tali on the altar.

He forced a laugh and the best grin his scarred face could make, marching everso forward as his heart begged him to go back. He didn't really _want_ to know what the reality waiting for him was, didn't want to know what was behind that hill. The wedding was safer, a better place to be...

Moving faster now, he raced through the grassy reeds. Time was running short, but he could feel it somehow. Garrus was almost there - he barely noticed the storm that had softened the ground into so much mud.

He reached the hill, a dome poking out of many flatlands. The grassy lump of terra could only hide so much - Garrus easily spotted distinctive tuxedo-shoe shaped footprints. Stepping in each mark and slathering his own feet in mud, the turian retraced Shepard's last steps on Rannoch.

The soggy path came to a sudden halt and it wasn't until he looked into the silent plains that it all became clear.

"Fuck," he said, trying to pretend to himself that he was surprised.

He turned around and raced back, already knowing he was too late.

* * *

The bells had begun to ring. Hannah smiled and patted Tali on her back. "It's your time, honey."

Tali struggled to hold back tears. She had always dreamed of seeing this day, but she never allowed herself to truly _believe._ Part of her always felt like he was doomed, destined to lie in a pile of rubble somewhere. But all the sacrifice, all the blood, sweat and tears had finally crystallized into this one moment.

"I'm so proud of you, Tali," Raan said, one arm resting on her shoulder. "Go to him."

When the rain had begun to fall, she had worried about the festivities being ruined. But it only came down briefly - Tikkun shone brightly and it was like there had never been clouds at all. Now, all that stood between her and Shepard was a simple wooden frame. She flung the pavilion's doors open and began the walk down the "aisle," a thick tapestry lain over Rannoch's soil. The woven road to the altar was long and red, a path reminiscent of the journey they had travelled together.

A sea of eyes flooded her perception, each resting upon her naked countenance. She had debated hiding behind a veil for the ceremony - it was abnormal for quarians to be openly intimate. Humans, on the other hand, customarily ended their wedding ceremonies with a public display of affection. It seemed wildly exhbitionist to her - a kiss in private was nothing to be embarrassed about, but exposing your face to a crowd? She would have felt more comfortable being bare from shoulders down.

Part of her had hesitated to unmask even in front of Hannah, but Raan insisted on the grounds of the admiral's many years of experience with facial dressings and "an exposed face." The entire thing had seemed so invasive, but Hannah acted as if it was completely natural. It reminded Tali of how Shepard found it unsettling that quarians jammed themselves into tight corners, without any respect to personal space. She had teased him about it then, but she saw it in a different light now. _We all want personal space, even if it's in different places._

Now she was the equivalent of nude in front of a throng of people. Perhaps a week ago she would have been wracked with anxiety, struggling to hold it together. But when the dressing up and facial prodding had finally finished, something Hannah had said struck a chord with Tali. "Oh, honey - you look so gorgeous. Shepard isn't ever going to forget this."

It was a simple, silly little thing - it was something she already knew. _I came here to marry Shepard, not a crowd._ They were going to embrace difficulty in meshing cultures, food, and lifestyle the rest of their days. He had never complained about her inability to eat his food, to completely abandon her envirosuit...or carry his child. For Shepard, Tali could start here, with a simple kiss.

_This is what we fought for, what we risked our lives for. This is our moment._ Any anxiety that had been fluttering in the back of her mind had long drained out. Hannah and Raan crept behind her to sit among the many other guests, but it escaped her focus. Single mindedly, she marched down the rest of the aisle and the edge of the tapestry.

The altar was modest - a simple raised platform and a white arch, adorned with many symbolic stones. Each was a rune marked with ancient khelish, word-symbols that functioned as vows for quarians native to Rannoch long ago. They would be exchanging formal vows as well, but these had a significance of their own.

As a curious child, Tali was fond of rambunctiously digging through her parents things while they were away. Crawling on hands and knees, she was certain her sneaking was too quiet to be foxed out. However, young Tali's habit of excitedly throwing things into walls and making "oooh" sounds were less subtle and led to her capture.

Mother walked into Little Room, finding her daughter happily looking into a box of colored rocks with much amazement on her face. The young quarian dropped the stones she had been caught red handed with and prepared for a sharp punishment. Instead of a lecture, Tali was told the story of Mother's wedding.

"Your father was hardly a romantic," Mother said. "When we started dating, I thought he was far too serious. But one day, I realized your father loved me very much. We were married and had you shortly after. It was the happiest time of my life."

The orange flicker of an omni-tool appeared and a display of pictures rested against a wall. Many people that Tali didn't recognize flashed by, but the pretty arch with the runes stood out. "May I have stones, Mother?"

Her mother couldn't help but smile. "One day, you'll find a charming young man of your own. And on your wedding day, my stones will be your stones, just as they were my mother's and her mother's before that."

Space was scarce on the Flotilla, but Tali had kept the tiny little box of runes all her life, a singular memento in a life of brutal efficiency. She was too busy with war and the strife of her people to linger on sentimentality all of her life, but Tali had insured that her mother's memory would be here.

Lost in thought, she found reality in an uncomfortable squeeze. Her dress clung tightly and "shaped" her in ways nature had not intended. She had endured much worse but it was unpleasant, standing there in proper "stiff" posture. Shepard seemed to be taking his sweet time getting out here. _Sigh._ It would be like him to fall in the mud right before the wedding and need emergency wardrobe assistance. As soon as the armor came off, he was like a fish out of water.

Bored, she looked at the quarian minister behind the altar's podium. He was rather ancient looking; the distinctive quarian bend of his legs was beginning to sag and cave in. His body barely filled the fabric of his suit - it hung off his body loosely like a young child's clothing. Time had shrunken his body and he had chosen to save the money for alterations, likely for some more noble cause.

The minister had every right to be old, of course - he had married her parents. Tali had wondered briefly if he would refuse to proceed over an interracial marriage, as some of the more traditional quarians found the idea of marrying an outsider abhorrent. But unlike her father, the old man was entirely supportive of her partner.

_Father._ For a brief moment, a throb of sadness struck her heart. She had lost many hours of sleep dwelling on him, staring into the ceiling like her first days on the Normandy. Her father's cold, still silence was worse than anything he could have said - for Tali, it had never been a question of if he would have supported her choice. _Would he even speak to me again?_

It wasn't a happy truth, but his absence made the transition into her new life much easier. He was serially misguided, doing all he could to help and nothing to listen. He had died chasing a dream, but it was not hers. Rael could never understand...no, he would never reach out to_ learn_ that her home was immaterial. The attachments and bonds she carried mattered more than residence.

_He would have understood...someday._

If he was still out there, somewhere between the galaxies, able to see her amongst the many stars...Father would know how happy she was. He would approve of the man who built her a house on the homeworld then.

Fundamentally though, she had to live her own life. Shepard had thought it was funny when she had become heavily intoxicated, fumbling around with drinks and "emergency induction ports." In truth, her personal parallels to Sanctuary had taken her to a dark place and alcohol was somewhere to hide. Tali had never liked the Cerberus lapdog - she was a cold person who radiated an air of arrogant superiority. But part of her distaste was tied to envy.

The quarian did not always feel comfortable leaving Shepard with his XO. She saw Miranda's physical freedom, her shape and voluptuous body...and how much she was _not_ that. Tali had never felt unattractive, but she would be in denial to ignore the barrier of her immune system. Her figure and hips were environmentally sealed, with the risk of initial exposure being death. Miranda was the embodiment of the human ideal and Tali was plagued with the legacy of the quarian's failure.

But worse than any feeling of self-consciousness was seeing Miranda's strength. Beyond the chiseled cheekbones and ample bosom rested a staggering amount of fortitude, an indomitable will that could not be broken. She was born into perfection yet rejected the expectations of her birth to go her own way. And when it mattered most Miranda kept her sister safe, even at the expense of her father's life.

_You can't even step out of your father's shadow._

She sighed softly and tried to think of something else. Father was gone and dwelling on what he would or wouldn't have wanted was pointless. She was here today, on this altar, and soon to wed the man of her dreams.

_If_ he was ever going to get here. Frustration began setting in and a warm pulse of heat rang on her temples. She didn't know how long she had waited for him on the altar, but the passage of a sizable chunk of time had sunk in. She tapped her wrist and nothing came up, as she held back a curse. _I __**told**__ Raan I needed my omni-tool._

Tali had insisted that accidentally activating it during the proceedings was incredibly unlikely, but her aunt had chided her about "risking bad photos." Now she needed the check the time and had nothing but frilly lace to help her.

_You don't need to check the time. You just want to._ Shepard had screwed up somehow, but he wasn't going to miss their wedding - he was the one who pushed for hosting it so early. _Now if only humans didn't have a stupid tradition of avoiding each other on their most special day,_ she thought bitterly. The lack of information on what was going on was even worse than standing up here and looking stupid by herself, smiling anxiously for ages.

Tali did her best to stealthily examine the crowd while keeping up her "proper" appearance. The guests seemed more unnerved than she was - many shuffled in their chairs and glanced backwards, no doubt looking for Shepard. _Yes, we're all doing that now._

She scanned the crowd for Garrus and was alarmed to see he wasn't seated anywhere. He was supposed to be keeping an eye on Shepard, and if he wasn't here..._What have you gotten my husband into, you bosh'tet?_

In the back rows Hannah and Raan were having a conversation, keeping their hands cupped over their mouths. Her aunt's features were hidden behind a mask, but Hannah's face had turned pale and her eyes had a look of wild concern. _Keelah, I hope John's okay._ Tali's feelings of resentment chilled into pangs of guilt as she wondered what condition had made Shepard too sick to walk.

"Do you know if he's okay?" she asked, turning to the minister. Wordlessly, he outstretched his hands with his palms face up, just as clueless as she was. The sound of chairs shifting alerted Tali to the fact her vocal volume had been a few decibels too high - the room's many eyeballs pinpointed upon her with laser accuracy. _Don't panic. Take a deep breath and relax._

Her instincts, however, had another plan - the stinging sensation of tears brewing burned her eyes. Inhaling once again, Tali did her best to block out the moment. _You can't cry now. You didn't spend all that time in a torture chair for nothing._ Visions of black tears steeled her against a total mascara collapse.

The pertinent issue remained though. _Where is he?_ Tali wondered, eyes repeatedly drifting towards the still unopened door. _Maybe he left—_

_No. He would never do that._ She bit at her lip, tasting the faint bitterness of the lipstick Hannah had applied earlier. Anxiety gripped her chest, and she wanted once again to check the time on her absent omni-tool. The opening song had ended, and she could see people beginning to eye the exits.

Like thunder and lighting, Zaeed and Grunt arrived. The sound of their pounding footsteps boomed over the atmosphere. Yet their faces showed far less confidence; Tali had never seen the two looking so timid. It was as if they were _afraid_ and the feeling was contagious - her stomach sank like a stone pitched into the ocean.

Morbidly curious, she watched as they slinked over to Hannah. The elderly Alliance officer within emerged and a look of hot death bored through the latecomers. Tali strained her ears as hard as she could, but the mercenary spoke in tones so low human ears could barely hear. Whatever it was, it punctured Hannah - she watched as the color and life deflated out of Hannah's body. Urgently, the Alliance Admiral waved for the others who had set up the ceremony to come with her and they snuck off into the pavilion.

The crowd's whispers were now a din - rampant speculation seized their imagination, and all sense of propriety had been lost in the crisis. Everything within Tali told her to bolt off the stage, to knock down the pavilion's doors with her fists and demand to know where Shepard was. But her body had fossilized into a stony statue - fear anchored her onto the thin layer of carpet over the empty altar.

And then there was auntie - walking around the many attendants as discreetly as she could, Raan came to the side of the altar and called out. "Tali. **Tali**." But she simply stood there, transfixed.

Alarmed, Raan climbed over the platform and tugged on her niece's shoulder. "We have to go." The distraught quarian let the kinetic energy fall upon her, landing with a _thud_ onto the floor of the altar.

The room watched her in horror now - the bride's eyes deadened and she stared into empty space. Hollow tears flowed down Tali's face, never stirring the typically vigilant auto-responses of her body. She had left it long ago and traveled to a faraway place, a dark abyss where a litany of terrors consumed her imagination. Shepard lay fallen in every one, his blood and bones strewn into the plains.

A clawed boot kicked down the door of her thoughts and Garrus' scarred face came into view. Reality flooded her perception, demanding answers to the only question that mattered.

"Is he hurt?" Tali asked, struggling to speak at all.

The turian started to answer but the words died in his throat. Garrus' mouth hung ajar, as if it took great effort to keep it from sliding off his face.

His silence was a sharp knife in her heart and her mind bled with vivid images of a dead husband. "He's...gone, isn't he?" Tali whispered, her voice faint.

"Yes...he left, Tali. In a shuttle."


	4. Chapter 4

_"He left."_

Each syllable escaping Garrus' mouth was a blow to the face - the words tumbled upon her like a pallet of bricks, crushing Tali underneath.

_"I'm sorry, Tali"_ floated over her with far less cadence. The wedding was fading away from perception, lost in an abundance of stimuli. Dreary poison began dripping into her veins, sapping her of what little remaining energy she had left.

_"Tali?"_

Speaking? No, not now...her diaphragm was weighted in ice. The pit of her stomach boiled over with every sickness, depriving her of any locomotion. Talking was too much, too soon.

_"Tali!"_ came the voice more urgently. If it was in her to sigh, she would have. She had no choice but to speak now.

"I, I'm...going," she said, wavering throughout every word.

Momentary strength filled her - she raced, driven by the compulsion to get away. She ran to the pavilion, but there were _people_ still there. Tali instead made her way to the parking lot of the facility, looking for the aircar she had arrived in.

There were so many cars; she searched fruitlessly for her own in the maze of dead ends. Every vehicle sufficiently like her own was a betrayal - mental false alarms blared with every flash of cherry red. They were accompanied by the clamor of _car_ alarms, each triggered by the former bride's clumsy movement through the lot. The intolerable screeching added yet more urgency in getting away.

Upon finally finding her own aircar, she cursed - the damn thing was locked and here she was, still without omni-tool. Frantically pounding on the handle, she looked back, towards the abandoned altar. She could see the vague outline of _people_ lurking behind her. Reckless urgency took Tali and she smashed her way in, hurling a nearby stone through the driver's side window.

Brushing aside the glass, Tali grasped the door's power lock. She flicked it incessantly, but without power it simply made a_ flick_ noise as she pressed against it. Adrenaline pumping, she removed her shoe and broke off the few remaining stragglers of glass on the shattered window's frame. Taking a deep breath and slipping her flat back on, she acted before anxiety could compel her otherwise. Tali took five steps back and then dived through the now open window.

Upon contact, the quarian instantly knew that she had messed up her landing. Her left side cried out in pain - a stray piece of glass had torn through the delicate dress and sunk into her insides. Body awkwardly draped across the front seats, Tali bit her tongue and got up rapidly - too fast, as the shard dug into her skin even farther, leaking more droplets of blood. Her already clamped teeth reacted to the stimulus poorly, digging into her tongue and almost rending it. Mouth too inflamed to curse, she flailed her arm instead, slamming on the horn. It boomed like a gong, alerting anyone who didn't already know to her exact presence. _Shit._ She had to act fast now.

Tali tried for the glovebox, which was thankfully unlocked - a stone wouldn't have gotten her past that sealed compartment. She pulled at a set of wires, adeptly manipulating them as only a quarian could. Her hands weaved between the tangled pile of cords for what seemed like years, looking for that one special brown - _Here it is!_ she mentally exclaimed, already championing her jury-rigged victory.

Her discovery triggered another burst of adrenaline, adding onto to the fluid that was already keeping her upright. Veins pumped with liquid will, Tali took a well-polished false fingernail and placed it on the brown wire's jacket. _Sorry Hannah,_ she thought, dragging the immaculate falsie against the ignition wire. With its metallic insides poking out, Tali took another pair of exposed cords and rammed the naked circuitry together. A continuous spark flared and she was rewarded with the glorious sound of the aircar's engine rolling over.

"Tali!" a voice exclaimed, just outside of her peripheral vision.

Tali rammed the pedal, flying off and leaving whoever it was behind.

* * *

Hackett sighed as he let his omni-tool's light fade away. He rose from the chair smoothly, keeping his immaculate posture. It was unlikely anyone would care about the minutiae of military formality in this moment, but he was a creature of habit - proper presentation wasn't something he had to think about anymore.

Several of the wedding's many guests still lingered, discussing amongst themselves the scene that had unfolded. Many had talked to Raan in private, offering to help clean up the rented pavilion's cluttered space. While he deeply sympathized with the older quarian, the read out from his omni-tool was a more pressing matter.

Cleaving his way past a group of diplomats, he walked to the tiny enclosure._ If Hannah's not outside,_ he thought to himself,_ she has to be in here._ Knocking with carefully measured force, he questioned the doorframe. "Hello? I need to speak with Hannah."

His pounding was greeted with silence. Unhappy he had to resort to moderate rudeness, the admiral let himself in. His suspicions were confirmed upon finding the elder Shepard, with her knees curled and back to a cabinet. The female admiral greeted his entry with a weathered, blank gaze. Her disheveled appearance took the wizened admiral offguard - age had taken its natural toll on Hannah, but recent events had rapidly hardened her features.

"Hannah," Hackett said, voice tinged with traces of sympathy. "I know you're upset-"

"Upset?" Hannah replied, face twisted into a gaunt frame of anger. "My son just walked out of his own wedding. Without a word to anyone!"

"If it wasn't of the utmost importance -"

Hannah interrupted him once again. "What could possibly be so important you need to talk to me _now?_" she asked, wiping away the beginnings of a tear.

Hackett pressed against his wrist and dropped the display of his omni-tool in front of her. The read out quelled her anger. "Are...you sure that's accurate?" she asked, slightly awed.

"I ran the protocol with another tool," he answered. "You can test it on your own, but the results are accurate."

"The military comm buoy network is down..." she said aloud, still in disbelief.

Nodding solemnly, Hackett elaborated. "Every terminal from every theater, uniformly rendered without service. Whoever did this funnelled billions into tech, likely just to keep it running for a day. For all the bandwidth they deny, we can add on additional servers for a fraction of the cost." Voice grim, Hackett continued. "There's only one use for such extravagance."

Hannah took in a deep breath, facing the prospect of likely war. "Are you sure it isn't a massive ion storm, something natural?"

Hackett shook his head. "They're not just down, but flooded. The buoys can still be pinged, but they won't return data."

"The only one who would have that much computing power on standby is the geth," Hannah remarked, a sudden horror gripping her voice.

"That had occurred to me," Hackett replied. "It's an odd coincidence that the galaxy's best and brightest have all gathered on their homeworld. It still doesn't explain how they were able to access the security mainframe, though - only the top ranks of the Alliance have that kind of clearance. They'd need not just of one inside agent, but several - secrets of that magnitude are finely spread throughout the officers, to prevent just this kind of thing from happening."

"You still have to check on the geth," Hannah insisted. "They could be involved."

"Yes. We have due diligence there," Hackett acknowledged. "But this move seems more like the lead up to an infiltration strike than an occupation. Even with the geth's numbers, they would stand no chance - the Reapers' corpses have yet to cool. Galactic mistrust of artificial intelligence would be enough to move governments against them."

If Hannah had been in a seat, she would have reeled in it. "What infiltration target is worth the price of pulling down the entire Extranet?"

"I don't know," Hackett admitted. "But whatever this means, it isn't good. That's why I need you by my side, Hannah. With leaks of this magnitude, I need someone I can trust."

Hannah shook her head, refusing before the admiral had even finished. "I can't do that Steven, not now."

Getting on his knees, Hackett put himself face-level with his fellow admiral. "We can get him help, Hannah."

Angry again, Hannah jerked away from the close proximity with the elder admiral. "You know even less about this than I do."

Ignoring the icy tone, Hackett went on. "The man who left that altar empty isn't the same one who marched into London. We've both seen soldiers go through this before. With the command he had to carry, it's remarkable he's held up as long as he has."

He paused for a moment, waiting to see if she responded with another angry retort. When she kept silent, he took it as a positive sign and pressed on. "The Alliance won't turn their backs on him. Only the best in the galaxy will be entrusted with his care. But I need you now, Hannah." Pulling up his omni-tool once again, he left the ominous read out in view for her to see. "How we respond to _this_ is going to determine if people live or die."

Tension hung pregnant as Hannah's silence endured. Furrowing her brow, she got up, doing her best to dust off her wrinkled clothes. "Damn you Steven," she muttered, before reluctantly following him out of the pavilion.

* * *

Tali had flown for quite some time, wanting to make sure she wasn't followed. Her dramatic exit had added more turmoil to an already difficult situation and it was likely someone had been sent to tail her. Getting dragged back and explaining why she had broken into her own car was an unnecessary addition to her burdens, so she kept up against the skyline.

Peripherally, she understood that this was not the behavior of a sane person - no one would have refused her the keys to her own car or forced her to stay out among the crowd, anxiously sucking in their judgment. But in that moment, the idea of talking about...

Tali blocked out what had happened and kept her eyes on the "road" - as long as she kept focused, she could ignore the growing pain in her side and the thoughts in her head. This trip marked the first time she had been thankful Rannoch was so underdeveloped. Empty plains flew past her, each strip of land looking the same as the last. If she didn't know better, she would have thought to be circumferencing a very small globe, retracing her path over and over.

The engine spit out a _put-put-put_ and suddenly the skycar began to nosedive. Tali struggled with the controls, desperately pounding her fists against the haptic interface. Nothing worked, and she found herself careening into the ground with a thud. The airbag deployed, protecting her from any accident damage, but the shard still stuck in her side was pressed even deeper in by the intrusive bag. _"Fuck,"_ Tali screamed in pain, using one of Shepard's favorite offensive idioms. _John..._

_No, not now,_ she thought to herself. Pain still throbbing, she squirmed away from the airbag, careful not to bump her wound. Blindly fiddling with the now obscured controls, Tali reached behind the safety device and triggered the trunk latch. It popped open and she began her long, painful walk outside the car.

After she had pushed her way out of the vehicle, Tali became painfully aware of the blood loss - standing required a Herculean effort. She struggled with a few steps, each leg's movement followed by the pitter patter of her own blood landing upon the dirt. _ If you pass out here,_ she told herself, _no one will find you._ Turning off the lights upstairs, she raced like a gazelle, falling into the trunk compartment upon reaching her destination. She had found her salvation - the emergency medi-gel beamed to her like a life raft on the open sea.

One task still remained though - applying medi-gel over the shard embedded into her body wasn't going to be enough. Digging through the health kit, she found the equivalent of a giant pair of tweezers. "Keelah," she said, imagining what was about to unfold. Applying the slightest bit of medi-gel over the edges of her wound to act as topical pain cream, Tali ripped out the shard from her body.

She instantly fell to the ground, screaming horrible obscenities in pain. Not wanting to bleed out, she took a large blob of gel and put it into her gaping wound.

She laid there in agony for what must have been several hours, suspended in a waking slumber. The tingling sensation of medi-gel raced throughout her body, doing it everything it could to pacify her thrashed nerves. As the pain began to recede, she gazed upwards, intently following the gentle movements of clouds above.

Eventually, the medicine ran its course, and Tali was burdened with the misfortune of having to keep living. She got up very slowly, not wanting to repeat her mistake. Leaning against the car for support, she slinked against the side, before finally collapsing securely into the backseat.

She tried to close her eyes and sleep, but despite the darkening sky, she wasn't anywhere near tired. Trying to get comfortable, her arm knocked over a heavy book that rested on the raised space behind the backseat. Irritated, she grabbed the tome and went to toss it aside before realizing what it was.

The book was a photo album that had belonged to John while they were still on the Normandy. In it were several pictures of them together, with his words scrawled in the margins. Besides a picture of her cleaning an SR-1 engine, he had inscribed, _"I noticed you, even back then."_

Against her better judgment, she kept going, passing pictures of them together on missions and later, dates. Eventually she came to a series of photos that were labelled "Post-Collector Base." It was just the two of them, snuggling in bed or cuddling on his sofa. In the corner of the margins, he had written in the tiniest font, _"I love you Tali'Zorah and I always will."_

Tali's tears came like a waterfall, soaking the ink-laden words and smearing them into oblivion. Distraught, she shoved the photo album underneath the seat and covered it with up with her purse, still laying on the floor "unneeded" from this morning.

_"He left," _Tali cried, uttering the forbidden words. Memories of the only man she had ever known came flooding into her; she was haunted by them, the visions of John's grace and kindness. In every pivotal moment of her life, he had always been there - he was the universal constant, the one thing she could always trust. When the Fleet betrayed her with a farce of a trial, it was John who defended her. After her she had learned of Father's passing, John had held Tali in his arms. And John was the Hero of Rannoch, saving the quarians from themselves and the Reapers.

He was the steady bedrock, the compass through which she had guided her life...and now he was gone.

_"No..."_ she moaned, unable to cope with the weight of her own thoughts. Sobbing fervently, she lashed out, punching heavy dents in the passenger's seat. Tali kept striking, as if exposing the soft fabric within would accomplish something, only stopping when her knuckles became ragged and raw. _"John..."_ she cried, as much a wail as a question.

Tali had offered her own life to his cause, following John even when it likely meant death, venturing beyond the Omega-4 relay. She abandoned everything for him, leaving her people even as she stepped over Rannoch's liberated soil. And physically, Tali had shared with him what she offered to no one else. _"I gave myself to you, John..."_ she weeped.

Memories of how they first fell in love came to the forefront. She had clumsily come onto him, and quickly fell into disbelief when _Commander Shepard,_ hero of the Alliance and muscled marine, had reciprocated. After time had passed, she battled her own emotions and let guilt overwhelm her - Shepard couldn't have understood the sacrifices in being with a quarian, the true costs of her suit. But John battled even her own insecurities, letting her know that she was worth it...the only one he wanted._ "How could...why would you do this to me?"_ she lamented, the already gaping wound in her heart expanding outwards.

Nothing made sense but the pain - they had been through so much together. The idea of leaving now, giving up on their marriage...it was like several puzzles mixed into one box, with none of the pieces fitting together. He had asked for this, wanted to marry as soon as possible...for him to go was beyond Tali's strained perception. She sobbed lightly, having run out of tears to give, and passed out amongst her broken dreams.

* * *

Tali shivered - she was in her envirosuit again, but it was cold back in London. The rain didn't help either. With a resigned sigh, she opened the tiny rental's door. It was oddly dark inside. All of the lights were turned on, but they emanated an inky blackness. Suddenly anxious, she took in a deep breath...which she promptly choked on, spitting it back out.

Stumbling through the unusually thick air, Tali turned and saw two outlines...herself and a muscular man. The quarian's doppelganger stood motionless, a statue next to the larger figure. He, however, kept his eyes roving around the room and his voice speaking, as if his thoughts flowed through his lids. The blackened pupils occasionally looked over to where Tali was standing, but they never seemed to notice her presence - they kept turning and making revolutions, absorbing every facet of the area but Tali.

"I feel like it should have been me who died, and not Anderson. It...none of it feels right to me," the voice played back. It sounded so familiar to Tali, but frustratingly, she couldn't place the speaker. The voice had been drained of all character, leaving nothing but hollow sounds.

As he went on, several inky daggers materialized above him, floating and bobbing in the sky. They pointed toward his neck, readily preparing their strike. Their appearance went equally unnoticed by the speaker. "Like I've just put off the inevitable. I keep thinking everyday that I'm going to vanish. That..." The figure hung his head in shame, and Tali finally recognized who it was. The daggers flew through his neck and into the ground, opening a swirling galaxy beneath him. It pulled away the muscular outline's dark cloak and Shepard was revealed, face etched with depression.

"That I'm doing you wrong, trapping you in my personal Hell." His face contorted in pain. "You deserve better," he said, finishing the soliloquy. The false Tali started to leave the tiny room, motioning toward the door handle that would lead away from - "No!" the real quarian yelled, and the phantom _poofed_ into smaller black clouds.

The angles of the room turned to her. Tali could see the foundations of the house crumbling as the walls focused their beams towards the offending quarian - she had annoyed them with her continued presence. Even without eyes, the gaze of every piece of furniture and fixture was overbearing.

**He is ours,** boomed the galaxy. The room began to shake and the cosmos below let forth a powerful gale of wind, pulling Shepard into it. He hung in space effortlessly, frame posed statically against the will of physics. He began to sink into the aether blow, the many dark stars that would consume him. Tali jumped across inky space and grabbed onto John tight, investing all but one foot that remained on the edge of the carpet, the demarcation between this life and the next. "Shepard," she called out, desperately, but he simply allowed himself to fall into-

* * *

Tali woke up in the aircar and sneezed. _Oh great,_ she thought, feeling the onset of an infection. Shuffling around in the backseat, she felt her back complain of stiffness - sleeping in awkward curve had done her no favors. Doing her best to ignore the ever compounding inflammation throughout her body, Tali walked back to the trunk.

Digging through the various junk still in the trunk, she found her spare envirosuit and a set of emergency cleansers. The illusion of Shepard's touch flickered down her spine before dissipating. _Not going to need these anymore..._ she thought to herself, more sullen than broken.

Taking the anti-bacterial kit, she hopped back into the back seat and...realized the driver's side window was still blown out, preventing the vehicle from being a sealed container. After a few minutes of pondering, Tali pulled the skycar's floor mats off the ground and piled them next to the empty frame. Fishing through the many pockets of her envirosuit, she found a tape-like substance and adhered the mats to former window pane.

It was definitely only a temporary solution, but it would get her clean enough to slip into the medical security of her typical quarian attire. Spraying the cleansers into the air, she fiddled her thumbs as she waited for complete decontamination.

Tali didn't feel _good_, but the tears and time alone had helped. Although weighed down by the negative atmosphere that reality carried with itself, the wheels within her head were beginning to turn more clearly. In a hurry to get away from everything, she had not made plans to return - while she was an engineering wizard, it was going to be hard to turn reeds into petrol. She had stranded herself in the middle of nowhere on a very sparsely populated planet.

It would likely have been more logical to be afraid, but Tali found it hard to worry about her current predicament - the broken wedding had left her feeling hollow. If she never made it back to...whatever, it wouldn't be the worst thing.

_The wedding._ Something about it stirred the remnants of a half-remembered dream, mixed with the worst of a memory. Shepard had been talking about...something, a regret. Cracking her neck and trying to remember, she tried to block out the few distractions Rannoch's landscape provided. There was something about John...well, she already knew that.

Nothing coming, Tali inhaled a deep breath. Her inhalation took in a lone bud of pollen, a straggler from the winds. It took up residence in her throat, causing her to gag.

Oddly, the irritation brought back part of the dream - it had been night, and Shepard - depression. Talking about his own feelings. Not wanting to trap her in his own brand of Hell.

"I wonder if..." she voiced aloud, heart too afraid to even finish the thought. She had barely started grieving the loss of her marriage - falling in love with false hopes would only prolong the torture. She tried to think about something else, anything else, but the confines of the aircar left her with little else. _Maybe he had a reason for leaving,_ she whispered, thinking of John's emotional struggles. _Maybe he just needs your help._

Trying to convince herself that it was true, she pulled away the purse hiding the photo album. Running through the many pages, she searched for the most touching of John's scrawls. Upon coming to its earthly remains, she noticed that her tears had turned his message into a large splotch.

Hands shaking, she went through her envirosuit's pockets before finding a pen. Wrapping three fingers around it, she placed it on the ruined page and wrote over the damaged words with her own ink.

_"I'll always be there for you, John. Always."_

For one brief moment, everything felt whole again - writing had delivered a soothing calm for the quarian. The pessimistic side of her brain wailed in anger, demanding her heart falter once again. But the fantasy had taken Tali, filling her with a hopeful spirit. _I have to find out what happened to Shepard._

Using a function on her suit to ensure the aircar had been properly sanitized, Tali began to disrobe from her ruined wedding dress. She hadn't really realized how trashed it was until it was resting in her arms - there was a huge gash down the side and the lower end was soaked red in blood. Best of all, the rear had been covered grass stains._ Glad this wasn't a rental,_ she thought to herself, chuckling for the first time in many hours.

Slipping into the familiar envirosuit, Tali put on the snug garment. It was constricting, as any suit hiding all of your flesh would be, but any "shaping" it encouraged was at least incidental. It said a lot about modern fashion that her standard apparel was more comfortable than a gown. More secure in her own "skin," Tali got out of the aircar feeling like a new woman, only pausing to shove a few essentials into her many pockets.

Looking at the endless horizon before her, she started walking. _Whatever happened to Shepard's that way,_ she said, starting the long journey home by foot. It was going to take awhile, but he was totally worth it.

* * *

Tali had been gung-ho when she started traversing the plains, but that was nine hours ago. Her stomach had been to churn, with only hopeful dreams to digest. Tikkun had also done her best to wear down Tali, sapping her of all fluids with furious midday heat. Her legs were beginning to stiffen and she was hesitant about taking a nap in the deserted plains. Getting consumed by a wild animal wouldn't bring her any closer to the truth about Shepard.

Taking another step, she stumbled over and landed on her visor. _Okay, I need to take a break._ Rumbling around in her pockets, she looked for useful items in a survival situation. She found thermal clips, a (sadly) empty tube of vegetable paste, and some tools that would be very useful if there were any nano-circuitry laying around.

This was going to be difficult.

Noticing that Tikkun was already threatening to sink beneath the sky, it occurred to Tali that building a fire might be her best option for security against wildlife and, most likely, preparing dinner. The thought of chasing after an animal down and tearing the flesh from its bones was less than appealing, but starvation was worse.

She began ripping out reeds and the "leaves" of the cacti-trees, building a pile of dry debris. Fortuitously, it hadn't recently rained, ensuring that the pile of brush would actually burn. But there was nothing to light it with - if she had gasoline and matches, she'd be back in the car. And while her envirosuit was fully functional, it did not come with its own omni-tool, preventing her from simply lighting the grass ablaze with an incinerate.

_Damn it Raan,_ she thought, annoyed at how complicated things had become without the simple device. If she still had her omni-tool, it would be trivial to log onto the extranet and broadcast her coordinates. Then she could-a pang of guilt suddenly hit Tali, as she remembered that Raan had been left to sort out the disastrous wedding. She and all her other friends were probably worried sick.

_You can apologize once you make it back,_ she told herself, suppressing the urge to mesh her fingers together. As irresponsible as she had been, they'd be even more unhappy if she died out here. Taking two thermal clips, she banged them together over and over, hoping to generate a spark. With much effort and frustration, she succeeded in doing nothing but exhausting the precious little energy she still had.

Aggravated, she placed her palms against the visor covering her face. The sun's rays had beat down onto it for several hours, making it uncomfortably hot to the touch.

_Hmm..._

Taking off her mask and lining it up with the Tikkun that just barely hung in the sky, she pointed the makeshift magnifying glass towards the brushfire. _Please work please work please work_ she chanted to herself, unsure of what else she could do if this failed. Rannoch's arid weather could turn freezing at nightfall.

Like the brown ignition wire, Tali's mask managed to spark the brush, triggering a rapidly growing fire. In fact, it spread beyond the little pile of dry leaves she had assembled - it was catching toward other nearby reeds and cacti trees. "Keelah," Tali exclaimed, realizing she had just started a full blown brushfire.

Not wanting to be charred alive, Tali slapped her mask back on and ran away from the now roaring flames. It took in every direction, but it seemed to most enjoy engulfing the grassy reeds toward Tali's car instead of just Tali. While there were still payments on the skycar, it could always be replaced. Adrenaline once again aiding her, Tali huffed and puffed with bones that had just been too tired to move.

Racing through the plains in terror, a sudden gust of wind knocked her over. Initially confused by the odd change in weather, Tali's heart leapt in her chest as she caught sight of the Normandy. "Hey! Over here!" she called out, watching in despair as it flew farther and farther away in the opposite direction. She raced after as best she could, going in an upward diagonal arc - the frigate's acceleration by the fire had extended its reach, spreading it even further.

"Help!" Tali yelled, vainly calling to the now fading Normandy and watching the grass burn behind her. That ship was her only hope now, and this fire was either going to kill her or draw their attention.

"Please?" Tali called out, trying politeness where everything else had failed.

In a turn that would shear most other ships, the Normandy reversed direction.

* * *

Hackett let out a sigh, eyeing the facilities' exit - there wasn't a point in staying any longer. He went to offer a cordiality to the geth, starting to say "I think we're good now." He trailed off at the end, unsure of how to address the unit. Even though the geth were true AIs now, they still weren't keen on individual names.

Instead of a personal goodbye, Hackett offered a handshake. The red juggernaut paused, looking down at the outstretched palm. After properly computing the social implications, the geth locked its own arm in solidarity, keeping equidistant from where the Alliance admiral stood.

Hackett nodded, acknowledging its response._ Close enough. _The unit seemed to understand that gesture and refrained from mirroring it. Awkward organic-synthetic relations resolved, the admiral started his walk away from the compound.

He was returning to the Alliance frigate empty handed - the geth had allowed a full inspection of facilities. Hackett barely understood the complex engineering the geth employed, but their peaceful compliance pointed against them being the culprit behind the Extranet's crash.

_I've wasted an entire day on this,_ Hackett thought, looking at the already setting sun. _Any attack could have been executed hours ago,_ he told himself, with much bitterness. Although he had been polite with the geth, he'd been in a sour mood all day.

Hackett sighed heavily, thinking back to his now-useless quantum entanglement communicator. On the flight across Rannoch, its presence had toyed with him, sitting inert in his cabin - he could have entirely gotten around the Extranet's failure and checked in with headquarters long ago, but the same blast that had killed the reapers and battered the relays fried some of the more "delicate" tech. Restoring most technology had simply been about patience, but the QEC was a different beast - every installed unit came with an astronomical price tag. It was hard to justify when so many refugees still wandered Earth's streets, so the Alliance mainly fell back to normal Extranet usage. With that avenue obviously gone, Hackett fruitlessly contemplated his remaining options.

In truth, there was not much he could do on Rannoch, light-years away from Alliance Headquarters. If the worst happened and the attack came within his borders, all he could hope for was a non-informant to do well in his stead. Hackett couldn't help but wonder if other high-ups had been conveniently invited to "weddings" of their own.

Something unsettled Hackett about the timing of Shepard's disappearance and the buoys' failure.

It was unlike John to willingly associate with politicians, but the wedding had been chock full of diplomats. While every government kept emergency plans for such incidents, it was hard to foresee the combined displacement of leadership _and_ the complete eradication of the Extranet. Any attack would generate panic, delaying any official response. The bastards behind the network's crash would have plenty of time to dig in and cause havoc.

_Maybe Shepard..._ the thought coasted off the top of his mind, unfinished. He would face that hurdle if it reared its ugly head - as of now, Shepard was missing in action. He couldn't question him if he wanted to. Thinking back to the promise he made Hannah, he shuddered at the potential conflict of interest he'd embroiled himself in. While Hackett needed someone he could trust, he regretted the place he had put them both in - there was a very real possibility that Hannah had signed up for sending her son to the brig.

_You can't do anything about it now,_ he told himself, trying to keep calm and professional. A "sir" punctured his private fears and the frigate's ramp emerged in his vision, revealed from plain view. Hackett looked at the young man guarding the door, paranoidly checking to see if he was familiar. The amount of Cerberus goons among the Alliance always bothered him, but this was a new level of invasive.

Upon seeing that it was the typical doorman, he went inside the ceremonial vessel. He usually traveled in a frigate, but the difficulty in landing and cost of operation was excessive for short excursions. For trips like the wedding, he took his crew and boarded the rarely used _Hastings._

Boarding the main deck, Hackett strolled by the ship's many operators, each of them formally saluting as he walked by. The admiral robotically acknowledged their continued existence, having been at the receiving end of more salutes than he really cared for. Not wanting to mingle anymore than he had to, Hackett made his way to the central elevator, passing his yeoman.

Oddly, she neglected to remind him of any new messages. Normally, walking within a yard of the yeoman resulted in being told about some new missive. He considered bringing up her absent-mindedness, but the thought better of it - the repeated references to his inbox were hardly something he enjoyed. Keeping silent, Hackett took the elevator up to his private cabin.

His quarters were spartan, much like the layout of any Alliance ship. Hackett had indulged himself only once, with an instant coffee maker. Instead of sugar or creamer, the admiral kept a container of disposable cups next to his grounds - he had grown out of luxuries like flavored drinks long ago. The warm, bitter taste of black coffee was far crisper than the sweet swill he often found himself drinking on diplomatic missions. Throwing a plastic cup underneath the brewer, Hackett pressed a button and the machine began straining water against java.

Waiting for coffee to percolate, Hackett turned on on his terminal. Going to check the news, he hit a dead page in his browser. _Oh, right,_ he thought to himself, recalling the very reason he had gone on this mission. _Of course I don't have any messages._

Strolling his fingers against his desk, Hackett contemplated what to do next. His routine had been shattered by the change of pace -

Flashing bright red, his terminal blared an intrusive sound. Its speakers vocalized an alert: "You have an important transmission waiting." _The Extranet's back up,_ he thought, anxiously scrambling to answer the call.

He pressed a finger against the haptic interface and established contact. "This is Admiral Hackett. What's the situation?"

There was a moment of interstellar lag before a young voice answered. "There's been an attack in Alliance space, sir."

A curse floated to Hackett's brain before dying - while this was the nightmare scenario, he'd gone through the Reapers. He could keep his cool here. "Who am I speaking to?"

The voice identified itself. "Private Collins. I was stationed on Earth when it happened."

_Earth._

Hackett's heart began pounding. If this was a terrorist attack, it would be a slaughter. Earth's infrastructure was still razed to the ground. A well-equipped army of mercenaries would have little trouble torching the civilian population. "How many casualties?"

"No casualties, sir."

The admiral tried to process the information, but it was like hearing colors - none of it made sense. He kept quiet for a prolonged moment, trying to think of any explanation.

"Sir?" came Collin's voice, checking to see if the connection had dropped.

"Right," Hackett said, unusually flustered. "Can you confirm that report?"

"Yes sir, there were no casualties."

Hackett had already known that was going to be the answer, but it had given him a moment to catch himself. "Where on Earth did they hit?"

The communication cut out for a moment. Hackett pieced together a "seize" out of the mishmash of static. "What did they seize?"

"The Crucible, sir. It was taken."

Hackett let the call hang dead as visions of fire filled his mind. He could see it even now, the red rays descending upon the galaxy's planets. Any opposition would be obliterated - the Crucible had been strong enough to destroy the Reapers. The battered Alliance fleet would simply mingle with the ashes of civilization.

"How?" Hackett asked, as eloquently as he could.

"I wasn't in orbit, sir. From what I've been told, it was a hit and run attack - they boarded and took off into the relay."

"Took off?" Hackett asked, incredulous. "The Crucible is massive. How'd they get by the patrols?"

"I-I don't really know, sir..." the private stammered. "No one has reported seeing them after the initial attack."

Hackett had a guess - if they could shut down the Extranet, they likely had access to the Alliance's security scheduling. "Is there any immediate danger?"

"No sir. There's no sign of any further unusual activity."

Hackett nodded. "All right. We'll reconvene in five - I need a few moments to prepare. When I come back, we'll go over the finer details of the attack."

"Yes, sir," the private replied, his voice fading as Hackett closed the call. Sucking in the privacy, the admiral took in a deep breath. Even with the Reapers dead, the galaxy always found a way to be in perpetual crisis. He took small solace in the fact that the Crucible was heavily damaged - even with the remaining parts, it would take a great deal of time to reassemble.

Suddenly, there was a pounding on the cabin door. "Come in," Hackett answered.

It was the yeoman. "Hello sir. I just wanted to let you know that you have..." she stopped, to look down at a display on her omni-tool. "...nine hundred new messages and several queries from every Citadel race."

Hackett sighed. Even in the worst of times, there was still paperwork.


	5. Chapter 5

Hot licks of fire threatened to burn at Tali's ankles now, even with hope descending right in front of her. The Normandy's nose angled downward as the ship fell closer to Rannoch's burning soil, moving with reckless abandon. She saw the maw of the ship part and knew that a tiny sliver of metal was all that stood between life and death. If she didn't grasp on _perfectly,_ she would be crushed beneath the steel frame or eaten alive by flames.

The Normandy lowered itself just within range and from the ramp, Tali saw the outline of a blurred turian, motioning for her to come aboard. It was now or never - she took three running steps and jumped for her life. As she hurled her body into the air, fire hitched onto her leg. The pain was electric, searing the complicated mechanics of suit into her flesh.

Horrible adrenaline blinded Tali to her own salvation - the impulses of instinct had carried her across the finish line. The tips of her fingers clung to the plate of metal as the Normandy took off, flying upward into the sky. Flames continued to move up her lower limbs and Tali almost tried patting them out with her palms, the burning sensation overloading her wits. Garrus prevented her from plummeting to an inevitable death by extending his own clawed hands, grabbing the quarian's wrists. Trying not to fall over himself, unsteady on the ledge of moving metal platform, Garrus pulled Tali upwards with all his might.

They landed together on the Normandy's bay and found themselves rolling backwards as the ship's mouth closed, sealing them away from the air and to safety. From among the crew, a cloud of white fumes landed on the quarian's legs - the fire extinguisher put an end to the flames coursing against Tali's body.

With her safety now secured, Garrus started to rise, but found himself having difficulty. His leg had taken a major collision against steel and decided standing wasn't such a good idea. He started to mumble a request for help, but his mouth was buried in some fabric of Tali's suit - as some of the pain faded, he realized awkwardly that had collapsed face forward into the quarian's backside. His brain finally managed to overcome his leg and he situated himself into a more proper position.

One of the Normandy's shuttle techs helped Tali to her feet and offered the quarian some medi-gel, but she ran to the turian instead, wrapping him in a fierce hug. "Thank you," she said, pressing her form into his. The turian almost tumbled backward, but something about her curvature helped him stand. "I didn't think I'd make it," she continued, keeping her body locked to his.

Garrus' hand began to drop down the female's spine before lucidity came back into view. _What are you __**doing**__?_ Snapping his hand back to a more professional position, he broke the hug, staving off any more inappropriate temptation. With the sheer will of desire no longer supporting him, he fell onto the heavy metal floor, banging his already injured limb. "Fuck," he moaned, leg spasming in pain.

"Garrus!" Tali yelled, placing her hand on the turian's thigh, checking for a break. "Are you all right?"

Doing his best to ignore the sensation, the turian instead remarked on her health. "I'll be fine, but you smell like death." It was true - the odor of charred flesh and tech had already dispersed through the air.

Tali dropped a hand over the seared limb and cringed in pain - emergency and gratitude now extinguished as the fire, her burn had taken center stage. She quickly motioned for the medi-gel she had just denied and applied it to her wound. Her stomach lurched in the throes of pain as her leg rocked in agony. After a few minutes the torment subsided, medi-gel working its magic. She took a relaxed seat on the floor as she waited for the pain to dull further.

"We've got to stop meeting like this," Garrus quipped, his own damaged body on the floor as well.

"I've had better days," the quarian conceded.

There was a moment of silence before the turian brought up the unfortunate. "I'm...sorry about the wedding, Tali."

Tali waved off his concern. "No, Garrus - I'm sorry about leaving and making you chase after me."

"No one blames you Tali," the turian insisted, more concerned about her own well-being than any personal inconvenience at having to find her. "What happened was horrible."

"Is Raan all right? I feel awful for dumping her with everything."

Garrus paused. "...Yes, she's fine. Initially she was worried about something bad happening to you, but she calmed down once we started a joint patrol with the geth."

Tali seemed to cheer up, unnerving the turian even more. "Great." She took a look around the familiar cargo bay. "How did you get the Normandy onto Rannoch so fast?"

"Are you sure you're okay, Tali?" Garrus asked, the concern in his voice unmistakable.

"I was just curious." There was a distinct mark of umbrage in Tali's reply.

"We were going to lend it to you, for your honeymoon." The turian gritted his teeth with the explanation. "You know. For your wedding. Where Shepard left you." The memory of Tali alone at the altar still filled Garrus with rage.

"I'm sure there's an explanation," the quarian replied icily.

Garrus' face fell into a grimace of sympathy. "Tali," he said, his voice more pleading than judgmental.

He was fortunate not to see the stern look beneath the mask. "You said he left in a shuttle. That doesn't mean he left of his own accord."

Noting that her arms had been crossed in an disapproving stance, the turian tread lightly. "This isn't the time to have an argument, Tali. We should both get to the med bay."

"There is no argument," she insisted. "Shepard wouldn't leave me."

_"Tali,"_ Garrus exclaimed, exasperation getting the better of him. "Nothing about his departure showed any signs of coercion. None." It was an effort to restrain from damning the commander further; it hurt him deeply to see Tali still in denial of Shepard's cruel parting.

"You said he left in a shuttle," Tali retorted. "Did you _see_ him leave?"

"No," Garrus confessed, the semantic truth of the situation triggering a wave of frustration. "But there were no second set of footprints, no sign of a fight. We searched within a mile of the area, Tali. All that's there is a pair of burned lines, the faint traces of a shuttle marking reeds."

"It could have been a set-up," Tali insisted. "The fact he walked there by himself doesn't mean he _wanted_ to go."

The turian's face screamed frustration from every cragged pore. "He intentionally left himself with Grunt and Zaeed, the two people least likely to concern themselves with what Shepard did on his own time."

"And you," Tali replied.

Garrus' mouth curled so hard, it threatened to implode on itself. "Yes, of course, but he had to invite me - I'm his best friend."

"This is sounding like a conspiracy theory," Tali said. "Are you sure you're his best friend?"

"_Why_ are you defending him?" All understanding expended, Garrus lost patience and his voice turned into a booming holler. "He **left** you, Tali."

There was a terrible, anxious silence. The quiet extended patiently as the quarian was once again pierced by the truth. It only passed when the faint sound of filtrated sniffles could be heard. "I - I know," Tali managed. "I know better than anyone."

She slid a finger underneath her mask and wiped away a stray tear. "But Shepard...we're...he's always been there for me." She paused, struggling with words. "I won't give up on him now."

Garrus sighed gently. The defiance that had been boiling over within him faded into sympathy. The turian got to his feet and offered her his hand. "Come on, Tali. We should get some rest." She quietly obliged, happy to be at least among friends.

* * *

"Good morning!" The female voice yelled in Tali's face. The quarian jittered underneath the sheets, sprawling beneath the covers.

"What?" Tali moaned, still exhausted.

"I made you breakfast in bed," Kasumi beamed, her purple stained lip curled in a tight smile.

The thief's friend squinted and looked at the tray of food. There was a strip of pan-fried bacon, an omelet with the finest herbed cheeses, and three stacked pancakes, each dripping with butter and syrup. In her free hand, Kasumi held a glass of orange juice.

"These look like they're levo," Tali remarked, thrown off by the strange yellow coloration of the eggs.

"Oh, right," Kasumi said, setting the now worthless surprise on the floor. "I always forget about that."

"Why did I have you cook, again?" Tali asked jokingly. "You probably poisoned all my friends."

"Just the turians and quarians," Kasumi insisted. "Besides, I just got too excited this morning to remember - I've really missed you." The thief leaned in to give Tali a hug and ended up with more blanket than quarian.

"I'm not awake yet," Tali insisted. "It's too early in the morning for this."

"2 PM is early?" Kasumi asked drolly. "I _think_ there's a dextro coffee maker in here - goodness knows Garrus needs it. Even working full time as the captain, he still insists on calibrating the guns."

Tali looked at the alarm clock next to her head - she had seen it briefly hours before, when she smashed her fist into it. It was unlike her to sleep in so late, but it was also unlike her to injure herself repeatedly. Shifting around in bed, she groaned at the taut stiffness in her back - she had felt poorly yesterday and the hours of plains-walking had only made things worse. She looked around for a bottle of aspirin on the nightstand next to the bed, but Garrus didn't keep any medication there.

_Garrus._ Squinting once more, Tali remembered that she had fallen asleep in the captain's quarters last night. The room had hardly changed since Shepard had lived in it. _Turians never were ones for decorating,_ she thought to herself, remembering some of the gaudy civilian clothes Garrus would take to parties.

"Garrus captains the Normandy now?" Tali asked. It was a odd for a turian to be captaining an Alliance frigate.

Kasumi nodded. "It's a ship of the galaxy now - the Council purchased it from the Alliance. Thought it would be a good symbol of unity after the war."

Tali blinked beneath her mask. "I'm surprised the Alliance would part with it."

Kasumi went on, still digging through the turian's personal possessions in hope of finding a coffee maker. "Well, when your homeworld and colonies have been torched into dust, billions of credits can be appealing."

Tali smiled. "That definitely sounds like logic that would appeal to you."

"I can relate, yes. Well, - perhaps not to billion_s_," she replied, accentuating on the extra "s."

"What do you even _do_ with that much money?" Tali wondered. Having the luxury of personal space already strained her imagination's understanding of opulence.

Handing a cup of freshly brewed coffee to the quarian, Kasumi explained. "In my case, I cook you breakfast twice in one day." She went to walk out before turning back to the quarian. "You should feel lucky, you know. I don't cook for anyone else."

"Not even for dates?" Tali asked, grinning. "I lived on paste my whole life, and I still cooked for..." She let the thought trail off, in too good a mood to go back _there_ right now.

"Well," Kasumi said, biting her lip. "Only if they're _really_ hot." They laughed and Kasumi disappeared underneath her cloak, walking backwards from the bed. In her amusement, the thief had forgotten about the tray of food, and stumbled - orange juice, melted cheese and syrup spilled all over her frame, giving Tali a food pocked outline of the usually sneaky human. It was slightly rude, but the quarian couldn't help laughing at the sight.

"Damn it," Kasumi groaned. "Of course this happens _after_ I do my makeup."

Tali suddenly became quiet - having to poke and prod your face with oils was a serious matter. "You can freshen up in here, if you'd like."

"That'd be great. Showering and getting ready on the public level can be a bit too...open," Kasumi said with distaste, remembering the crew's quarters bathrooms. It had always perplexed her why toilets sat next to each other without barriers and three showerheads existed in the space comfortable for one person.

She was hardly a prude, but _that_ level of random intimacy was excessive - in the space of doing her hair, three people could need a toilet break or shower. Instead of playing privacy roulette, she simply woke up at 5 AM, long before anyone else would desire bathroom access.

Tali nodded. "Back on the Flotilla, the clean rooms were always busy - people used to trade scheduled appointments for covering shifts and assignments."

"I'm going to go downstairs and get a change of clothes," Kasumi informed her. "I'll be right back. You can go ahead and get ready if you'd like while I'm gone."

Tali looked down at the envirosuit she had slept in. "I'm good, actually." She pointed at a purple glove. "One of the benefits of clothing you can never take off."

"You can take it off _some_ of the time," Kasumi teased, before a frown dropped to her lips - she had been trying to avoid bringing up anything that would remind Tali of the wedding. She didn't seem to mind though, so the thief walked downstairs.

Tali twiddled her thumbs and drank some of the coffee, impatiently waiting for her friend to come back. While she had nothing against the Normandy's crew, she was more comfortable starting the day with Kasumi. After fifteen minutes had passed, she looked down at the mess the thief's fall had made. Getting up and pulling a towelette out of one of her suit's many pockets, she began to wipe up the splattered food.

"I'm back," came a near-sing song voice, reminiscent of the unwanted "good morning." Tali let Kasumi in and saw that the thief was holding a large purse filled with various applicators and oils. The sheer immensity of selection confused her - for a moment, she felt like Shepard, always confused by the simplistic engineering fixes she'd do.

"Tali?" Kasumi asked, confused at the quarian's silence.

"Oh, nothing," Tali lied, doing her best to mask the memory's effect on her voice.

"Mhm," Kasumi said, already suspicious.

The thief walked into the tiny shower compartment before Tali stopped her. "Wait, where are your second set of clothes?"

"Shit," Kasumi said, frustrated. "I only brought the makeup."

_**Only**_ _the giant bag of makeup?_ Tali thought to herself. "You want me to go get it?"

"Yeah, I really need to get this food off," came the voice from the shower. "If you could go to the lounge - that's where all my stuff is, just like it used to be."

Tali took the location down as a mental note and walked out the cabin. Taking the elevator down, she arrived on the third level. She passed some familiar non-essential personnel, noting that many of them were the same from the war. While the Council's discretion in maintaining the ship's culture wasn't essential, it certainly made Tali feel at home. Saying hello to a few that she was on closer terms with, the quarian made her way to the lounge.

Taking a look around, Tali noticed Kasumi hadn't removed the poker table or bar - she simply had thrown her own possessions around the current layout of the room. Scattered paintings and busts had been arranged haphazardly in the living place, mostly ones Tali didn't recognize - the thief must have had some work since the Collector Base.

She began looking for a closet or dresser, but Kasumi didn't have one. Looking underneath the bed, the quarian found a large duffle bag. Tali tried to pick it up, but it felt like it had been filled with anvils - she'd have to drag the thing by the straps to get it upstairs. Deciding to instead take a single outfit, she unzipped the bag. Finally free, many tightly packed thieving uniforms popped out, their expansion swelling and consuming more and more space in the bag. Mucking about, Tali pulled out a red one-piece - she had been sorely tempted to grab the suit with purple tones, but it would likely look a little silly with the both them dressing as twins. With the the hood, the thief's uniform looked quarianesque as it was.

Fiddling around in the back of the bag, Tali awkwardly dug through Kasumi's intimates, looking for something practical. After putting aside many lacy pairs of panties and bras, she settled on something that at least had straps. Hiding the unmentionables in the stomach of the one-piece assemble, she carefully rolled them together.

All that remained now was sealing the overstuffed bag. Tali was a master of condensed living space, but Kasumi had accomplished a remarkable feat - she had outpacked a quarian. Giving up and leaving a few one-pieces on the bed, Tali sealed the bag and grabbed a pair of shoes, now equipped with everything necessary to clothe a Kasumi. She walked briskly down the hall, not wanting to start a conversation with her arms full. Upon making it to the elevator, she nudged a finger carefully towards the interface. After all that, she didn't want to drop the thief's outfit on the dirty ground.

Tali knocked on the door of captain's quarters, just as she had done many times before - the ringing of her fingers against the door echoed nostalgically, triggering the best and worst emotions. "You can come in Tali," Kasumi remarked, behind the thick metal.

"Are you decent?" she asked, double checking. She didn't want to intrude upon her friend's privacy.

"Well, no - _you_ have my clothes."

"Then why did you tell me to come in?" the quarian replied, perplexed.

The thief waved off her concerns. "I'm just going to get dressed for a second, it isn't a big deal."

"All right," she replied, opening the door with a hand over her mask. She stumbled her way over to the bed, using the walls as a guiding support. Tali had been in the cabin enough times to know where to go from there.

"You're ridiculous," Kasumi snorted, getting up and mugging her friend. Now equipped with her clothes, she slid the fabric over her formerly exposed body. "You can look now."

Tali slowly spread the three fingers covering her eyes, peeking to see if things were truly clear - the thief had a funny idea of decency. Upon seeing she was indeed covered, she took a seat on the bed next to Kasumi.

"So...do you want to talk, Tali?" the thief asked, offering her counseling services.

"No, not really," she replied. Immersing herself in the moment was draining.

Kasumi scooted closer and put her hand on the quarian's shoulders. "But we're going to talk anyway, aren't we?"

"Why did you ask me if I don't have a choice?" Tali narrowed her brows in confusion.

"I was being polite until you rudely disagreed," Kasumi explained.

Tali sighed. Although her friend was annoyingly insistent, she had a point - talking would help. "All right. We can talk."

"Good," Kasumi said, pleased with herself. Tali nodded while keeping silent - although she agreed to talk, she was hardly forward.

Kasumi tried to wait for her friend to have the first word, but lost patience. "So...are you okay?"

"_Okay?_" Tali asked, incredulous. "The most important day of my life was ruined."

"Yeah, but..." Kasumi responded, struggling to keep positive. "...Yeah, it sucks pretty bad, doesn't it?"

"You're terrible at this," Tali remarked, actually laughing this time.

"I dropped out of psych 101 faster than I did cooking," Kasumi confessed.

"I thought you went to culinary school?"

Kasumi nodded. "Yeah, I did, but that was a good joke."

Tali rolled her eyes. "I feel so much better now."

"I know - I have that effect on people," Kasumi agreed, missing any sarcasm.

As much as the quarian hated to admit it, she did feel a little better - the enthusiasm was contagious. "Still doesn't help me find my husband," Tali remarked, still referring to her ex-fiance as her own. Part of her had never been able to let "husband" go - that word carried with it all her hopes and dreams.

"What do you want to do?" Kasumi asked, keeping her tone completely neutral. Tali noticed the sharp contrast between the human's and turian's approach - she deeply appreciated the complete lack of judgment.

"I want to find him," Tali said, oozing conviction. "I have to know why he did this, who did this to him. I'll never be able to let go until I know what happened." She reconsidered her choice of words. "I don't..._want_ to let go."

"Hm," Kasumi hummed, pondering the situation. "Garrus had every intention of chasing Shepard down after the wedding. There were...strange going-ons, beyond the obvious, with extra invitations being sent. We only stopped to look for you."

Tali gripped her friend's arm as hard as she could. "I **need** be a part of the search."

Kasumi drew back slightly. "I don't have a problem with it, Tali, but Garrus thought it might be best to give you time to...'take it all in.'"

Tali fiddled through some pockets before unearthing a gold band, perfectly sized to fit the male finger. "_This_ is my entire life now. If you don't let me go, I'll steal this ship myself and go look for him."

"Well," Kasumi said, taking in a deep breath. "If he says no, I won't tell him about your plans."

* * *

"I can't go any faster," Joker insisted, arguing from the pilot's chair. "There are these things called the 'laws of physics.'"

"We could accelerate more rapidly if we disengaged all safeties," EDI replied. "However the Normandy would ignite into flames and kill everyone aboard, ultimately causing a net decrease in travel potential."

Tali wanted to argue, but synthetics had this nasty habit of perfect calculation. "Continue to go as fast as safely possible then."

Joker kept his hands hovering above the Normandy's controls, occasionally touching various settings. "Is there any space in the Mako for me, Garrus? Because I bet this mission is going to be a_ blast_."

"Well, we could always use a good driver," the turian replied. "Ride's pretty rough though. Might be bad for your bones."

"I've gotten used to rough rides," Joker said, looking toward EDI's direction.

Garrus hesitated. "That's...great to know, Joker."

"That was a joke," EDI informed them. "I take the utmost precautions in carnal activities with Jeff."

"I'm sure you've had an accident, though." Kasumi remarked. "He is pretty fragile."

"I have broken Jeff's bones, but that was a controlled experiment. It did not result in increased arousal."

The room was quiet for a long time.

"That...was a joke, right?" Garrus asked, uncertain if he really wanted to know.

EDI curled her lips. "Of course, Captain."

Cap sunk deeply over his face, Joker changed the topic. "Well, we're here now."

The two dextros and human female turned to go, but the synthetic stayed behind. "You're not coming, EDI?" Tali asked.

EDI shook her head. "I would go, but it is unlikely there will be a high amount of danger in your apartment, Tali'Zorah." Returning her neck to standard positioning, she went on. "However, I will be available by comm. Jeff and I will be right here, going over the Normandy's read-outs."

"Yes, 'read-outs.'" Kasumi said, speaking with quotation fingers.

EDI contradicted the thief. "There is an unfortunately non-negligible chance you will ask for my assistance. I can of course multitask, but it results in a damping effect for Jeff."

"Let's go now," Garrus said, dragging Kasumi away by the collar before she could inquire about any more details.

* * *

"Why did we land so far away?" Tali asked, her arms crossed as they hit another bump.

"Dropping a meter from the apartment would cause a scene," Garrus explained, doing his best to placate the restless quarian while still steering the unwieldy Mako. "This is faster than explaining to locals why the SR-2 landed on their front lawn."

Tali didn't respond; she stared at the metal walls of the Mako, keeping her head slumped over her shoulders. The brief ride was punctuated with varying interludes of silent impatience and impassioned questioning. Garrus was finding it hard to keep himself composed. He kept reminding himself of the quarian's plight but...

"Are you _sure_ there were no leads from the Extranet?"

Garrus bit his tongue and answered the question for a third time. "When the servers came back up, Shepard's inbox had been wiped. We've only got cached messages he sent to others."

The reaffirmation didn't sit well with Tali. The gears of her brain tried to extract any drop of intel from the restored buoys. "Any news about the Crucible attackers? Maybe they had something to do with Shepard."

"That's a possibility," Garrus conceded. "But all we have is speculation."

The thief chimed in from the back of the Mako. "It is strange though, the similar timing of the Crucible's theft and Shepard's disappearance."

"See? She agrees with me," Tali pointed out. "We should totally keep tabs on that."

Garrus fought the urge to roll his eyes. "I will let you know the moment we get anything."

"We should double check," Tali suggested. "EDI, could you run a new scan for information on the Crucible's disappearance?"

EDI's voice came over the Mako's speakers. "One moment, Tali." The synthetic voice paused briefly as it performed the task of sweeping all the data within the Extranet. "There is no new information on the subject that is accessible."

The quarian's disappointment was unmistakable. "Thanks anyway, EDI."

"Like I said, no new information," Garrus commented, a little too smugly.

Tali picked up on her friend's tone of voice. "Something could have come up since you last checked," she argued.

"I looked it up fifteen minutes ago, Tali." Irritation had finally managed to seep into the turian's voice.

Now rolling her own eyes, Tali complained back to the turian. "I couldn't have known that. I don't log your extranet checks."

Garrus grit his teeth, frustration beginning to take its toll. "I suppose that's true."

Kasumi interjected, doing her best to change the subject. "So what are we looking for in Shep and Tali's apartment?"

Grateful for a chance to talk about anything else, Garrus went on. "Surveillance bugs, any traces of monitoring. Clues Shepard himself might have left if he knew about leaving." It hurt to say that last bit, given the obviousness of Shepard's knowledge, but he didn't want _another_ fight with Tali.

Bringing up the apartment realigned Tali's priorities. "I hope there's something there," she remarked, clasping her fingers together in a mesh. "What if we don't find anything?"

"I'm not sure," Garrus confessed. "Our next step would probably be..." He paused for a moment, thinking over their options. "We could contact Liara. The Shadow Broker Network might have seen Shepard somewhere."

Tali shifted in her seat slightly at the mention of _her_ name. While she had gotten along professionally with the asari, she could never shake the sense Liara was still after her man.

"Liara's the Shadow Broker?" Kasumi asked.

"I keep forgetting that's a secret," Garrus mumbled. "Well. Among the Normandy's crew, anyway."

"You may have just accidentally told the whole galaxy," Tali remarked, a bit of rare warmth returning in her voice.

"I'm great at keeping secrets," Kasumi protested. "I know lots of them."

"You're better at _taking_ them," Tali replied, with the slightest bit of umbrage in her voice.

"I feel like I'm missing some context here," Garrus said, slightly puzzled.

"It wasn't a big deal," Kasumi insisted. "I just read all their mail."

_"Read?"_ Tali asked, accentuating the active tense.

"Wow," Garrus exclaimed. "I hope you don't read my messages."

"No," Kasumi informed him. "Yours are too boring."

Garrus blinked. "I'm happy you find my life so mundane," he muttered.

Kasumi shook her head. "It's not that bad, but I get tired of scrolling past technical details about calibrating weapons systems."

"Wonderful." Pulling up to the curb, Garrus parked the Mako by the apartment. "Well, we're here."

"Finally," Tali exclaimed, rushing her way out of the Mako's hatch. Her leg clipped Garrus' side as she scrambled out of the vehicle. The turian let the accidental bump go without comment and climbed out of the cramped, metal interior himself. He was shortly followed by Kasumi, who took a little longer to get out of the Mako - she hadn't enjoyed its "pleasures" on the SR-1.

Only giving her friends a moment's notice, Tali motioned for them to follow. "C'mon," she said, leading them into the apartments. The other two squadmates did their best to keep up with the quarian's brisk pace, not wanting to get lost within the unfamiliar complex. The building was new, but spartan - it had been made to subsidize personal space quickly rather than turn a profit. They hardly got a deep look at it as the quarian blurred through its halls, rushing to get to her personal quarters.

She made her way to an elevator, but there was a long line of voyeuristic people in front of it - the waiting quarians each took a long look at the admiral, no doubt having heard about the recent misfortunes in her personal life. She ignored them and raced up the nearby stairs instead, her bent legs shifting with ease against the incline.

After they had gone up several levels, Garrus found himself panting for air. "Tali, what floor do you live on?" he called out, falling behind the eager quarian.

"We've only got fifteen more to go," she replied almost absentmindedly, still traversing the ever-winding staircase.

Garrus held back the urge to curse and turned to Kasumi. The thief looked just as uncomfortable as he did. "Today's just been an awful makeup day," she remarked.

Regretting his choice of heavy armor, Garrus ground out steps until the quarian finally announced their arrival. "Here we are," she said, leading them to the end of a long hall. Stopping at a door marked S-6, she put her key into the lock and turned the handle.

As the door swung open, Garrus wondered briefly if he was going to see the signs of a trashed apartment, quickly expunged of any evidence...but instead, he saw a pristine sofa. Plopping down upon it in his heavy garb, he took a load off.

"Garrus, we have to look for clues," Tali remarked, already combing through appliances, looking for secret bugs.

Garrus lazily lifted the couch cushion next to him, as if assisting in her search. "Couch's clean, Tali."

"Good to know," the quarian replied, too busy fiddling with tech to bother with sarcasm. The thief, who had the benefit of being lightly dressed, was already checking walls, knocking her fist against plaster to hear if it still rang hollow.

Garrus got up - although still a little winded, he did care about helping Tali. Getting on his knees, he looked underneath the sofa for unusual lumps. Instead of a listening device, his hand fluttered by a large mess of papers. Taking the sprawled mess of loose leaf sheets out, Garrus realized they were drawings. The sheer amount surprised him - he had to be holding at least a hundred.

They were haphazardly drawn, as if each pencil stroke had occurred by accident - holes pockmarked the more unfortunate pictures where the artist had applied too much force. They were frantic and confused - several pages were one simple graphene smear, entirely covered black in inky darkness.

The pictures that made sense were even worse. They each featured some morbid imagery, like a sea of hands popping out of dark shadows. Several pages simply displayed a large eye that consumed the entire page. The circular ball was kept simple in construction, but the artist had belabored in drawing the many jagged veins. Garrus felt watched himself just holding the paper.

In the more lucid drawings, there were trees. Dead, hollow trees, accompanied by a crude full moon. This place was of much fascination to the artist - indeed, whenever there was a recognizable place at all, he had set it in the shaded deadwoods.

As he got deeper and deeper into the pile, the technique became more advanced - vague outlines of humanoid shapes began to emerge. Skulls now littered the landscape, but they had no mouths - instead of a gaping maw, the artist rendered them with three narrow, vertical slits. The woods persevered, but there was something more refined now. What had begun as eavesdropping had transformed into intruding on a very private diary, a message he was not supposed to be privy to.

"Tali..." Garrus called out, his voice filled with apprehension.

"What?" she asked impatiently, still tinkering with the guts of a blender in the other room. She maintained focus, not wanting to accidentally slice her fingers.

"Is it normal for Shepard to draw?" he asked, dreading the idea of actually confronting her with the pieces.

"Rarely, he mostly does it when he needs to calm down," she replied, having put the blender aside. "Did you find some of his work?"

"You could say that," Garrus intoned. "I think you should take a look at this." The quarian put down the appliance in the kitchen and made her way over to the living room. Bracing himself, he pulled out some of the more visceral pieces and handed them to Tali.

The mask concealed her deepest reaction, but the wilt of her body was unmistakable. She seemed to sink more and more into the carpet with each tormented sketch. "Oh _John_," she whispered, voice clearly pained by the aching of her heart.

"Has he been acting...depressed?" Garrus asked, unsure of how to go on. He felt uneasy intruding on her grief, but only Tali had spent significant time with Shepard. Any information on the commander's frame of mind was locked inside her brain.

"He was...not well. Returning to Earth, the funeral..." Tali paused as she struggled with reliving the memories. "I thought leaving helped, he...he didn't tell me it was still like this..." The turian cringed at the tone of her voice - she was crestfallen, but there were echoes of disappointment as well. His failure to confide in his fiance added a new layer of discomfort to an already painful situation.

The thief popped into the room, dropping her cloak. She interrupted the conversation, not realizing what she had intruded on. "I can't find anything - the apartment's clean." When the response was deafening silence, she glanced at the pile of papers herself. The context crashed into Kasumi and she let out a soft "oh my."

"Can...can we put these away please?" Tali asked, looking away from the morbid drawings.

Garrus stuffed the papers back under the sofa, more than ready to hide their etched work from view. "Tali, if you need...".

The thought of a break was unacceptable - it was clear Shepard needed her now more than ever. "I'm fine," she insisted. "We have to keep looking."

"The apartment's a dead end though," Garrus replied, still trying to think of another lead. "Did Shepard ever go out with any friends? Maybe we could look there."

"He didn't really socialize." Tali answered. "He spent most of his time alone, out near the gardens."

"Gardens?" Garrus asked, confused. "You live in an apartment."

"Yes, there's a small forest near the complex. It's a public park - you can plant seeds there and everything."

Garrus turned his head and looked out a window, his eyes falling upon the aforementioned woods.

_What seeds have you sown, old friend?_

* * *

Tali walked by another insipid row of turnips. Her search for irregularities had been fruitless, but the seeded vegetables abounded. The residents of the apartment seemed to have relished the chance to switch from paste to fresh produce - every suitable square inch had leafy vines popping out of it.

None of that, of course, was very interesting to the quarian. Garrus' voice over her omni-tool was a flash of intrigue in the dull garden, but he quickly killed any excitement. "You find anything?" he asked, implying his own empty-handedness.

"No, just turnips," she replied, walking away from another patch of vegetables.

"You sure there isn't anywhere else we could look?" Garrus asked. "This place is huge - if there's anything here at all, it might take weeks to find."

"I told you, Shepard didn't go anywhere else." Tali was frustrated herself, but this was the last source of information left on Rannoch. "I'll ask around and see if anyone saw John around here."

"Good idea," Garrus replied over the comm. "I'll try the same."

Tali ended the call and walked around, looking for a straggler - it was late in the day to be planting anything, with Tikkun already kissing the horizon. She passed many turnips before stumbling upon an old man with his knees on the ground.

"Hello," Tali remarked, keeping her voice as cheerful as possible. "Can I ask you a question?"

"You already did," the old man grunted, still digging in the dirt with a trowel.

"Er, right," Tali replied, thrown off by the grumpy quarian's rudeness. "Have you seen a human come this way?"

"Sometimes, but that's hardly your business." The man seemed to dig his trowel into soil even deeper, as if he was taking out his frustration on the soil.

Tali did her best to keep calm - as rude as the gardener was, she was unlikely to find anyone else as dedicated to planting turnips. If anyone knew something about Shepard, it was probably him. She wasn't comfortable with flirting, but desperate times called for desperate measures - she side-stepped to give the irritable man visual access to her stance. Angling her body forward, she tried asking for information again. "I would _really_ appreciate it if you could tell me. The human is my husband."

"Oh," the gardener remarked, putting aside his tool and focusing on the new stimuli. "You must be that Tali'Zorah girl. I've seen your husband - strange fellow. Comes this way then walks off for miles, toward the rundown sheds."

"Rundown sheds?" she asked. She hadn't heard about anything like that before.

"Yeah, in the backend of the forest - was an electrical fire back there. A few of them are still standing, but all the agricultural equipment was ruined. No idea what he'd want with the place, but there you are." Shoving his trowel back into the dirt, the old man finished. "You're leaving now, yes?"

"Right," Tali replied, straightening her posture. Walking away from the male's earshot, she called up Kasumi and Garrus. "I may have found something," she said, giving them her coordinates. She paused before giving them one more piece of information. "Don't talk to the gardener, he's kind of a bosh'tet."

Tali anxiously waited for the pair to make it to her side of the park. As they made their way over, Tikkun had finally gone down, leaving her in the cold night. She set her omni-tool for maximum brightness, not wanting to be alone in the dark. The time in the formerly inviting and open park stretched on as the quarian wondered what was taking so long.

A chilling wind blew by and her friends came with it. "Hey," Garrus called out, briskly jogging to the quarian's spot. Kasumi followed right after, looking uncomfortable - the drop of temperature was more noticeable for her, given the thief's lack of an envirosuit.

Tali decided they'd have to keep their nocturnal activities brief - it was only going to get colder as the night went on. "This way," she said, gesturing to the woods. Her companions increased the brightness of their own omni-tools and followed her into the forest.

There was no path, really - the dim light of their omni-tools was their only guide, helping them traverse between the gaps between shooting branches. The "trees" were more like long sticks that curled out of the ground haphazardly.

"You call this a forest?" Garrus asked, looking at the narrow and winding growth. "You can almost see through the leaves."

"Most of Rannoch is plains, covered in shrubs and reeds," Tali explained. "This is actually a lot of trees."

"I miss the plains," Kasumi remarked, finding the way the twisted forest looped in on itself ghastly. "How far away are these sheds?"

"I don't really know," Tali confessed. "He said the 'back' of the forest, the part that got burnt down."

"Oh. That's good to know," Kasumi said, shivering. "We should be able to find it in minutes then."

Tali realized how cold it was and felt a tad guilty. "If you and Garrus want, you can turn back - I'd understand. I know it's rough without a suit."

Kasumi waggled her finger accusingly at Tali. "Oh no. You can't get rid of me that easy. I'm just saying: if I get sick, you're bringing me soup in bed."

"Gladly," Tali replied, smiling behind her fogged mask. She waited to see if the turian had anything to chime in with, but he was too focused on not poking his eye out on errant twigs.

They weaved their way through more of the unusual trees, marching through the flora for what seemed like hours. As their pace began to slow from the effort of exertion, Tali noticed their omni-tools were beginning to dim - the power was running low on the devices. Traces of fear popped into her brain; the howls and chirping noises of the forest began to speak to her in an insidious way. She wondered if the old man had lied to her, saying anything just to get her to leave.

As if the ancestors themselves had provided it, Kasumi pointed to a rotten set of woods. "Look - this part of the forest is scorched." Tali turned her head and saw a multitude of charred trees, the dead husks going on for as far she could see.

Squinting, she could just barely make out the outline of an enclosure. "I think there's something there," Tali exclaimed, the new adrenaline allowing her to break out into a trot. She ducked under the tangled grove's branches. Her beleaguered friends did their best to keep up, but their sore legs struggled to match the quarian's speed.

Tali reached the doors of the worn-down shed - she paused, taking in its conditions. In the night, its dark red exterior looked positively crimson. The same electrical fire that had burned so many trees also left its mark on the metal walls: black, tarnished bubbles were spread throughout. Pensively, she wrapped her fingers around its door handle - a sense of dread had started to build in her. There was nothing to suggest that there would be anything in the shed at all - it was one of many, according to the gardener - but she somehow knew better.

The door jammed as she tried to open it - there was a chain wrapped over the metal hinges. Frustrated, she drained the last of her omni-tool's energy to fire off a cryo blast. The offending blockade now frozen, Tali punched the weakened metal, shattering it against her now-bruised knuckles. Pushing the unrestrained doors open, the inky blackness of the room was revealed to her.

"Tali?" Kasumi cried out, making her way to the shed. All the human could see was the vague outline of her friend's form in the shed's darkened interior - the omni-tool around Tali's wrist had gone completely dead.

A few more steps brought rays of revelation as the thief's light stole away the darkness. Pages upon pages of paper were adhered to the wall, tacked or taped against wooden boards. The curvature of the room had been crudely covered in a map of the galaxy, painstakingly rendered in precise detail - even the most minor of planets were given tiny dots on the scribbled mural.

The same frantic art style from Shepard's illustrations reappeared in his depiction of the Milky Way: uneven, rough lines blurred into each other, the chaos within the rendition's order. Besides each planet was a tiny speck of color, sometimes multiple - an unknown color key existed for each rock within the galaxy.

The most notable feature was a series of conflicting strings, representative of paths from system to system. They looped and intersected in various ways, criss-crossing within the relay's possible paths. At the end of these routes, the artist punctuated them what seemed to be little red blotches. Unless you looked closely, you could hardly notice their squid-like shape.

"EDI?" Tali asked, her voice alarmingly level.

The AI's voice came over Kasumi's omni-tool. "Yes, Tali?"

"What...is..." she trailed off, lost within the graph's madness.

The thief's omni-tool snapped a picture and uploaded it to the Normandy. "One moment," EDI remarked, still analyzing the chart. "Although the color coordination seems to have no discernable pattern, some of the strings follow a trend of recent thefts."

"Burglaries?" Kasumi asked, puzzled. "Of what?"

"Element Zero - there has been an observable increase in both illegal trafficking and attacks on refineries."

Tali ran the information through her head, answering a single question and otherwise drowning in a sea of confusion.


	6. Chapter 6

It was hot in the shuttle. Even after leaving Rannoch, he was still struggling with heat.

Shepard contorted his neck against the metal interior, wiping the sweat off his drenched scalp. A sense of unease washed through his body as he could feel the beginnings of a migraine. The pounding rocked his consciousness, threatening to take him under.

He motioned to the driver, calling his attention. "I need rest," he managed, still fighting the crippling pain. "Wake me if anything urgent happens."

The driver nodded, keeping the white and yellow vehicle steady.

Shepard closed his eyes and allowed himself to slink away to the Other. The shuttle faded away and was replaced by the familiar dead wood. Instead of recoiling, he embraced the night air - it was a relief against his moistened features. His foot crunching against loose earth, he made his way to the forest's clearing.

In the center of the enclosure was a circular, tiled platform. The white structure had not always featured in his dreams, but he had seen it many times before.

Stepping onto it, he let the world around him fade away. The dimly lit atmosphere was eclipsed by the emerging blue and red star. Its two tones draped the projected office, shrouding everything in its peculiar shades - the black, reflective tiles took on the red most strikingly.

The room was mostly vacant, save for the chair that sat next to the fiery ball. In it sat a man of great distinction.

"Good to see you," the suited figure said, grinding a cigarette into an ashtray. "How are you feeling?"

"I did as you asked." Shepard replied, skipping pleasantries.

"I know it's not what you wanted," the Illusive Man soothed. "But you did the right thing for humanity."

"Not _just_ humanity," the commander corrected. Cerberus' singular focus had always irritated Shepard.

"Of course," he conceded, taking a puff of his tobacco. "Old habits die hard."

"Just like old enemies," Shepard said bitterly. _They_ had cost him everything.

"No one understands that more than we do, Shepard." He pulled open his suit coat, showcasing a noticeable bullet-sized hole. "The standards of living I have adapted to are...uncomfortable."

The Illusive Man picked up his empty bourbon glass pensively, putting it to his lips. "While compression was regrettable, I prefer it to continued enslavement."

The riddles he spoke in about his continued survival confounded Shepard. Never receiving a straight answer, he assumed it to be something monstrous - the man behind Project Lazarus had no doubt a contingency plan for his own mortality. But whatever shell that provided the Illusive Man with continued life was immaterial; he had a large problem and few dependable allies. Personal distaste didn't matter now.

"It's better this way," the man remarked, as if parsing his thoughts. "Anyone involved will just become a target."

"Even Tali?" His face twisted into a grimace. The reality of continued service was generally unpleasant, but leaving her had been the worst of all.

"Especially her," the Illusive Man countered. "We've been over this - there's no direct proof of the Reapers' survival. While the patterns in the data we've collected are compelling, a galaxy still celebrating victory won't be open to strong suggestions."

"I still..." Shepard trailed off, finding talking unusually tiresome. "Was it worth it?"

"It was the perfect distraction," the man assured him. "With the Extranet's collapse and the galaxy's diplomats preoccupied, we seized the Crucible with ease."

He took a sip of bourbon before continuing. "Given how far behind the patrols are, the chances are that they won't ever find its new location." The man paused, lighting a new cigarette. "Before it's too late, anyway."

Talk of firing the Crucible revitalized the commander. "How soon will it be before we can fire it? I want to go home..." The new energy died on his lips as soon as he mentioned civilian life.

For a moment, the man set aside his vices. "You misunderstand our situation, Shepard. The War against the Reapers is only the beginning."

"But," Shepard muttered, shaking underneath the strain of speaking. "She will be safe then..."

"Will she be?" the Illusive Man asked, his smug tones unbearable as the effort to communicate. "It's an interesting place, this brave new world you have crafted."

He waited to see if the commander would quarrel further. When he didn't, the Illusive Man gave the faintest hint of a smile. "It's true that our greatest strength is currently isolation - if the Reapers discovered our awareness of their activities, they would simply retreat back into dark space, just as the stragglers did before. The relays are only useful as weapons when they're in range of your target.

"Spreading the news would fail us in two ways - first, the natural disbelief you've encountered in the past. Second, and more importantly, telling the galaxy's governments is a sure way for our intel to leak out. Once the Reapers return to dark space, we have no recourse but wait for their second attack. Given the naivety of the council, I'm sure we'd be just as prepared as we were for the first.

"No, the galaxy's defense has to come from within these walls," he finished, taking a much needed drag from his cigarette.

It all made so much sense to Shepard, but images of the quarian couldn't escape his mind. "What does that have to do with me and Tali?" He could almost feel her skin against his, he wanted nothing more than to touch her...

The sound of glass against chair cleared his mind. "I'm getting there," the Illusive Man replied, irritated by the commander's interjection. "As I was saying, the Reapers are simply the beginning of a War for the Galaxy.

"The oncoming world faces many challenges, several of your own design. When you uplifted the krogan, rachni, and geth from galactic poverty, you upset the balance of power. Every other race stands next to the brink of ruin, barely surviving on the ashes of their once-glorious civilization. But the old menaces of time have been reinvigorated - soon, greed will rear its ugly head and prey upon a wounded council."

"That's not true," Shepard insisted, repulsion giving him a second wind. "Every species sacrificed to unite against the Reapers."

"Unity is achievable within reach of a common foe," the Illusive Man conceded. "But what will peace bring but more war? As the galaxy's fragile civilizations lick their wounds, the rachni, geth, and krogan quickly repopulate. Within time, force won't be necessary - we will be all too eager to surrender our dominion.

"We need a leader. Someone above this world's petty riches and trivial concerns. I tried, but my time has passed - technology will need to advance significantly before I can be freed from this prison and perform anything but the most meager of communication.

"But you Shepard, you are of able body and mind. I have already given you all that remains of our resources and men. You must take my mantle and bring Cerberus to the people."

He wanted desperately to argue, but visions of smiling crowds flushed out the doubt in his mind. As much as he hated to admit it, he was the savior the galaxy needed. Yet...

"There are others," Shepard argued, falling to his knees.

"Who?" the man asked. "The politicians on the Citadel, the same simple beggars who are bought and sold to the highest bidder? The same Alliance that counts security in mere missiles? Entropy will divest power among the worst of us.

"If you do not lead, men of lesser vision will. This is your burden, Shepard - the world is full of many who could take your role. But none of your caliber - without your leadership, we would already be in the next cycle.

"The old adage is true, Commander - you cannot serve two masters. You could follow the whims of sentimentality, abandoning all you were given for the simple life of a civilian. Or you could live up to responsibility and serve the galaxy."

Shepard slumped over in response to his words, unable to withstand the verbal intrusion. The Illusive Man paused his assault and walked around the prone form of his audience, taking particular note of how the commander quivered under the strain. "Yes...you have only one weakness, Shepard. If you can break free of love's hold, the galaxy will be secure for generations."

The conquered commander gurgled a protest, losing any specific meaning outside of his resistance.

The Illusive Man took his seat back before continuing, taking another sip of his drink to relieve his parched throat. "This is selfishness, Shepard. What would the quarian think if she could see you now? The ignoble hero, rejecting his call.

"They're a very practical people, quarians. She would understand. It would be merciful, really - would you really want to confine her to this life, anchor her to your burdens? We both know you're already married to the galaxy, John."

He put a hand to an ear and waited for a response, ultimately pleased when only silence returned. "If you really love the quarian, you'll let her go. _This_ is the best thing you can do for her - secure a galaxy where she and her people can live in harmony."

The commander's lungs pushed out a breath of air, vocalizing a simple thought. _"I love Tali,"_ he whispered, unable to speak any louder.

The suited figure nodded. "I know, Shepard - trust me, I know. She may not understand at first, but one day, she'll appreciate your sacrifices."

The Illusive Man ground another expunged cigarette into the messy ashtray. "I'll leave you to your rest for now, although you should check in more often - it was unfortunate I had to resort to such...painful methods to get your attention.

"We do, after all, have much to discuss - we'll need significantly more eezo to finish repairs on the Crucible."

* * *

_Urgh..._

Unpleasant pressure made its way to the turian's brow. As his brain did its best to roll over, he tried to resituate himself. He started with his legs, but his lack of awareness resulted in a collision - still fully clothed in heavy armor, Garrus' leg errantly collided with the small of Tali's back. She complained faintly, making the groans of a person still in the throes of slumber.

The unforgiving floor of the shed had hardly been a comfortable place to sleep, but it was shelter. The walls' illustrations filled them all with dread, but it was more inviting than the shrouded woods - their omni-tools wouldn't have lasted the night.

Garrus grunted and stood up, still feeling woozy. This was easily the worst night's sleep he'd ever had; soil and metal were hardly pillows. Resting his battered spine against the shed's back wall, he shifted uncomfortably against the mish mash of papers. There was barely space to breathe - getting up, he'd almost stepped on Kasumi's prone head.

The thief continued to snooze away but Tali had started to stir. The quarian squinted, trying to get the crusty fragments out of her tear ducts. She instinctively looked for a blanket and grimaced when she realized they were still in the shed. While continued rest appealed to her, Rannoch's firm mattress of dirt wouldn't allow it.

"Good morning," she said, with all the enthusiasm she could muster...which was none.

"Great to see you," Garrus replied, trying to ignore the protests of his stiffened back.

"Thanks for waking me up," Tali sardonically remarked. While she was normally full of energy and charisma, Garrus had noticed that didn't extend to mornings.

"No problem," he replied. He turned his gaze to the still slumbering thief. "Do you want to wake her up or should I?"

Tali shifted to her friend's still form and shook Kasumi's shoulders. "Kasumi," Tali called, having difficulty waking her.

"Grghmhf," she answered, lifting her face from the dirt. She held her eyes in a long blink and upon opening them, she saw the towering form of Garrus. "Well, you got dressed quick."

Garrus shook his head. "I just slept in my armor."

"Who the hell does that?" Kasumi asked, rolling over. She stared at the ceiling, unwilling to actually lift her muscles.

"I was being a gentleman," Garrus informed her. "Didn't want to impose, given the two ladies by my side."

"If it was going to be like that, Garrus, we could have slept outside and left Tali the shed." Kasumi paused, the signs of a smile crossing her face for the first time. "I'm not bothered by turian birthday suits - I'd have gone out there and kept you safe from the wild animals."

"I'm not worried about them, Kasumi - you're probably be the most wild thing out here."

The beginnings of her smile morphed into a full-on grin. "You have that right," she replied.

Garrus laughed nervously - he never knew how to respond to flirting. "Right...well, we should really go."

Kasumi noted the change in tone. "Sure, but I have to go the bathroom first."

Tali nodded. "Yeah, I just had to myself."

Garrus tried to think of something other than catheters, but it was hard. "We'll wait here 'till you're done."

"Mm," Kasumi hummed, opening the shed's doors and strolling out. She wandered off and disappeared for what seemed like an excessive an amount of time. Garrus tapped his foot impatiently, wondering what could be taking so damn long. He tried to talk to Tali but she was still half-asleep, sitting up and staring into empty space.

Garrus turned his attention to the disturbing mural. Several of the pages had old, apparently imperfect sheets underneath, papered over with their "improved" version. A sizable lump underneath the galaxy's core caught his eye. Carefully sliding his hand beneath the pages, he pulled at a bound collection of papers.

The artist had left a special work underneath the chart's center - he had spent a remarkable amount of time on this particular piece. Unlike the other more blurry, frantic scenes, the center set featured straight lines and realistic attempts at precision. It was almost like a slideshow, flipping through the art from beginning to end. Garrus could see the controlled evolution as its creator struggled to perfectly capture his vision.

He had ultimately succeeded - comparing it to the swirls of Tali's hood that was right in front of him, Garrus had to admit Shepard perfectly recalled even the most subtle details of her appearance. It was unfortunate that he had chosen to depict her in chains, wrists bound to a bare skeleton, its skull carrying the familiar three slits of a mouth. Turning the final page over, he saw that the word "no" had been scrawled into every margin of free space, eclipsing the paper's original color tone.

"What's that Garrus?" Tali asked, turning to the grave-looking turian.

"Nothing," Garrus lied, quickly tossing the papers aside. "I bet Kasumi's done now, we should really go."

* * *

"I captured enough footage," Garrus insisted, doing his best to argue while weaving through the forest. "We have comprehensive views of the graph."

"Yes, but what does it _mean?_" Tali asked. While she had been initially "excited" to get another lead on Shepard - as horrifying as it was - it only revealed a connection with Element Zero. She needed to go deeper than that.

Garrus looked side to side, his paranoia insisting he double check for eavesdroppers within the forest's boundaries. "There is something we should talk about," he said softly. Aligning his eyes toward the thief's direction, he finished. "This can't get out. It's liable to start a panic."

Tali's ear pricked up in interest. "She won't tell, I promise." Whatever it was he knew, Tali had to find out - the slightest scrap of information on Shepard was invaluable.

The thief nodded and Garrus sighed. This wasn't going to be pleasant. "After I was made Captain of the Normandy, I was given spectre privileges. There hasn't been time for a formal ceremony, but I have all the power and...access they're privileged."

Garrus took a deep breath and went on. "One of the first missions after London was returning to Sanctuary. The Council wanted us to obtain any technologies Cerberus had left behind and wipe the system clean."

Tali couldn't help but notice Garrus' features turn more solemn as the story continued, but the omen wasn't as important as her curiosity. "Go on," she insisted, hanging off his every word.

"We weren't the first to arrive. Someone had already copied the research and stolen a few pieces of the more valuable machinery." He hesitated, as if confused by his own revelation. "Whoever did it didn't care if the tech leaked out to others. The archives were completely intact when we got there and we were able to forward them all to the Council.

"The implication of the research is...disturbing. Cerberus had developed control over more than husks - they could influence indoctrinated subjects." Garrus paused, letting his words sink in.

Tali's thoughts slowly coalesced around the ugly idea. When she finally realized what he was suggesting, her eyes widened in disbelief. "That's not...No, Shepard couldn't -"

Garrus grimaced at the pain of her voice. "Shepard had a lot of contact with Reaper artifacts. It's more surprising he was able to resist for so long rather than..." He trailed off, uncomfortable with finishing the thought in Tali's presence.

Tali felt torn in two - the idea of Shepard becoming a thrall repulsed her, but so did the idea that he had _chosen_ to leave her. There was still hope for them if it was indoctrination, if something could be done...she cringed in guilt, already hating herself for wishing such torture upon her husband.

"How do you know he's indoctrinated? It could be a coincidence," Kasumi interjected, entering the conversation for the first time.

"The Council has already started 'studies,'" Garrus informed them, his voice turning particularly grave. "Most indoctrinated subjects recovered after the Reapers' death, but some were too far gone to let go."

Tali's mind clung onto the words _too far gone to let go_ and shivered. "Were they able to help any of them?"

Garrus sighed deeply as he made his way through another section of tangle. "That wasn't the point of the study. The Council was afraid of what Cerberus had learned being used against them so they..." He stumbled over the words. "They corralled anyone still suffering under the effects of indoctrination and performed a battery of tests. The work is still in preliminaries, but they've successfully managed to move participants limbs against their will."

_"What?"_ Tali exclaimed, her voice bubbling with outrage. "That's barbarous."

"It is terrible," Garrus conceded. "But if they can understand how that connection is controlled...that will help them move towards ultimately severing it."

"But what does that have to do with Shepard?" Kasumi asked impatiently.

Garrus briefly rubbed his forehead before continuing. "One of the goals of the program is to learn how to reliably detect indoctrination. They're working on more sophisticated scanning, but they also look for 'tells,' signs an indoctrinated person would exhibit. They started giving patients canvasses, pen and paper."

Dread seeped into Garrus' chest as he finished his explanation. "The more severe cases draw signs of being watched, silenced...lots of eyes, barred mouths..."

"What can we do?" she asked, feeling more lost as the conversation dragged on. Panic had begun to settle in - the urge to do something, anything, was a physical thing.

"We'll contact Liara and look into these refinery attacks," he said, trying his best to reassure her. "EDI will find a pattern."

"Yeah," she replied, some semblance of a plan calming her. It had been one to thing to think Shepard didn't love her - the thought of him being trapped inside his own mind, alone and afraid, was overwhelming.

Her feet could not carry her fast enough to the Normandy.

* * *

Tali's heart jumped when the tangled forest split apart, revealing the open clearance of the gardens. All that stood between her and the Mako was a brisk walk.

...And an empty stomach. The tedium of mindless walking had begun to fray her iron determination - bodily needs like food returned to her awareness.

Her belly made an audible grumble noise that caught her squadmates' attention. "When was the last time you had something to eat?" Garrus asked.

Tali strained her malnourished brain. "Sometime before the wedding," she responded.

"I tried to feed her," Kasumi offered.

"You tried to feed me_ poison_," the quarian countered.

Kasumi feigned indignation. "Poison made with love."

Garrus noticed the woozy tones within Tali's voice. "Come on - let's go to the apartment and get a snack."

"No, I'll be fine," Tali replied as her leg gave away.

The turian reacted rapidly, seizing her waist before she fell into the ground. "Yeah, we're getting you something to eat."

"No cooking," she mumbled. "We're in a hurry."

"I'm sure there's something prepared in the apartment," Kasumi remarked.

Tali paused, trying to remember grocery shopping from a week ago. "We have this weird human bakery, glazed Doe's Nuts. But those are dripping in sugar."

"As long as they're dextro. You could use the calories," the thief replied.

Upon seeing her friend's disinterest, Kasumi tried to sweeten the deal. "I'll start the Mako outside and everything. We'll be ready to go the second you finish."

"Fine," Tali grumbled, her stomach audibly agreeing with her vocal remarks.

"Great," Kasumi exclaimed. "See you and Garrus in a little bit." She walked off towards the front of the apartment where the Mako had been parked.

Garrus shadowed Tali as they walked through the complex's back door, making sure she didn't stumble over once again. Once they got in he eyed the elevator. Punching a button, the heavy metal doors parted and they went inside.

The platform rose through the shaft slowly - while the galaxy advanced light-years in technology with every Prothean dig, they still hadn't stumbled upon the secret of speedy elevators that were both cheap and safe to produce. _Or maybe they just want people to use the stairs,_ Garrus thought. It was easy to forget physical fitness, surrounded by the luxuries of modern life.

Garrus turned to Tali - she had zoned out to another place, duly taking in every facet of the compartment's faux-wood panelling. When their ride finally reached their floor, the _ding_ returned her to reality. "Come on," she told Garrus, speeding down the hall. The turian grunted and did his best to keep up in his annoyingly heavy armor.

They came to room S-6 and Tali flung the door open.

It was in tatters - the sofa had been split with a long knife, its upholstery hanging out of the cushions like guts. The papers that had been lurking beneath the couch had been sloppily destroyed, hit with a controlled incinerate that had scorched a small section of the floor. The collateral damage extended to various household items had been tossed onto the ground, cabinets torn off their hinges, and a fridge left ajar.

"Ssh," Garrus whispered, putting a finger over his lips. He suspected they were not alone - the floor's burn still smoked as if the intruder had just recently vandalized the apartment. Sneaking as best he could, Garrus slinked through the hallway and into the direction of the bedroom, all the while Tali investigated the living room area. She made her way past the windows and noticed a small hole had been cut into the center of one, just large enough for a particularly slim individual to crawl through...

Tali crept into the kitchen and ever so slowly shut the running fridge's door. Looking through the shattered plates and piles of tossed drawers, all she found was property damage. "Garrus," she whispered into her comm, before realizing her omni-tool was still dead. Bereft of anything but analog communication, she did her best to stealthily follow him.

As she passed through the door and into the room's center, she called once more to the turian. "Garrus," she whispered. "I didn't -"

She was interrupted mid-thought. Out of the ether materialized a white blur - a phantom appeared behind Garrus and leveled her sword against the base of his skull. The unforgiving handle clubbed his consciousness and the turian's world went dark, his large frame falling soundly into the carpet.

Before Tali could blink, a gloved, white palm entered her vision. "You have been requested of," the phantom uttered, leveling the weaponized hand toward the quarian's brow.

"By who?" Tali stammered, still in shock.

"My employer," she answered. "You could say he's a patron of humanity."

"Cerberus," Tali muttered, eyeing the door. If she could get behind cover...

The tilt of the quarian's head had not gone unnoticed by the agent. "This will go much easier if you cooperate." She shifted the angle of her laser-equipped palm to a bent knee, "I have only been instructed not to _kill_ you."

Tali wasn't faster than a beam of light. She turned her attention to the prone form of Garrus. "I'll come with you. Just leave the turian."

"You are not in a position to dictate demands," the phantom replied, angling her free arm toward the collapsed turian. The red eye of her palm lit up as she charged the weapon's blast. "Be glad that you were chosen for preservation."

The beam had just begun to travel as the phantom's body jerked wildly. The dangerous ray missed its mark and instead burned through walls and ceiling, leaving nothing but a trail of dust and plaster in its wake. Kasumi's now revealed form strengthened its grasp on the agent's neck - she twisted the cervical spine fluidly, snapping it in one quick tilt. A loud_ crack_ filled the room as the phantom slumped over, her head limply resting on a now lifeless shoulder.

"Kasumi," Tali exclaimed, both thankful and horrified over what the thief had just done.

"Glad I got here when I did," she replied, completely relaxed. Wrenching bones from their base apparently didn't phase her.

Tali, of course, had seen many gruesome things during the Reaper War - she had fired upon countless enemies herself. But that had usually been at a distance, somehow detached in the moment. The memories were unpleasant, but they didn't often stick - only the most visceral and disturbing scenes numbered among her late-night flashbacks, robbing her of sleep that was already being lost.

Somehow, she knew that the soft gurgling sound of the dying phantom would join their number.

"It's a good thing you came up here instead of waiting by the Mako," Tali agreed, doing her best to change the subject.

"Right," Kasumi replied, keeping to herself the little detail that had spurred her late arrival. It was not exactly flattering for a world class tech hacker to admit she couldn't figure out how to open a stubborn Mako's hatch.

Kasumi looked toward the likely concussed turian. "We should really get him on the bed."

Tali nodded and they lifted Garrus' armor-encased body onto the bed, straining to move the metal's great weight. Once they managed to place him onto the mattress, his heavy frame sunk deep into it. Kasumi shook her head in jest. "That's going to damage the springs - he's really got to go on a diet."

"I'd better hide the Doe's Nuts," Tali replied, somehow managing to already be snickering.

"They're called 'doughnuts,' Tali," Kasumi corrected.

"Oooh," she exclaimed. "I always thought it was weird they were named after somebody's private parts."

"Human culture isn't _that_ strange," Kasumi replied.

The conversation paused, with neither party having any more to contribute. "So...what do you want to do about the body?" Kasumi asked, killing the brief moment of levity.

Tali grimaced and turned to the unsightly corpse. "We should probably examine it and then call up everyone we can think of. Cerberus' survival isn't exactly a minor issue."

Kasumi agreed. "I'll fire off some messages through the extranet to the Alliance and Council. You have anyone on Rannoch you want to call?"

"I should probably call Raan -" Her aunt's name was like a dagger piercing through her skull. _She has no idea I'm back,_ she thought, panicking. Tali mentally kicked herself - as much Shepard needed her help, their were other people in the galaxy. Remembering to contact her family was -

"She already knows we found you," Kasumi assured her, having picked up on the quarian's sudden pause. "But she'd probably appreciate a call," the thief finished, smiling with her suggestion.

"Right," Tali answered, feeling overwhelmed by being pulled in so many directions. "We should really check this body first, though." It was hardly her idea of pleasant, but whatever the phantom had come for likely dealt with Shepard - she had burnt his papers, after all.

Tali approached the phantom's corpse. She patted down its still warm form, looking for pockets. The dead agent had full suit-compartments, but they were full of mundane items - medi-gel, energy packs for her laser. "Well," Tali said, her voice lacking happy conviction. "We should double check if she was really a Cerberus agent."

Kasumi's muscles tensed. "That should look lovely."

"Yeah," Tali answered, a streak of trepidation escaping her filters. She loosened the phantom's helmet, taking off the mask quickly as if it were her own. Upon seeing the gruesome image, she was compelled to shove it back on.

The phantom's eyes glowed blue and pupiless, with two long streaks of light drawn against them - it reminded Tali of the slits Shepard had drawn for mouths. Its flesh stank, as if being consumed by machinery had turned it into living rot. The heat of her fingers seemed to pull the dead phantom's muscles toward Tali - they rippled and tugged beneath the cybernetic skin and toward her, albeit without form or purpose.

Tali shoved the mask back over its face. "Definitely Cerberus," she confirmed, as the rapid covering of the ghastly corpse caused the head to bob and weave in a way necks were never meant to. "Well," she remarked, doing her best to forget what she had just seen. "We've got calls to make."

"Right," Kasumi replied.

Tali could just see a hint of color fading from the thief's cheeks.

* * *

"Important message for you, sir."

Hackett nodded glumly as the yeoman left his office. He had already read the message, having had the misfortune of checking his mail when it came.

He strummed his fingers, trying to sift through the weighty implications. Bulletins would have to be released - he'd keep it confidential at first, but it'd leak. It was too high profile not to be bought and sold by the information brokers. Then ANN would swarm on it like ants devouring a freshly slaughtered cow.

He groaned as he rubbed his temples. Smearing the image of their greatest hero didn't appeal to him, but there it was, in black and white...Shepard had become a threat to the galaxy.

The first step was going to be the worst, though. "Hannah," Hackett said, speaking into his omni-tool. "Please come into my office. We need to talk."

There was a pause - she had picked up on his reservation. "I'm coming now," she replied, keeping a neutral tone.

A lump of anxiety filled Hackett's throat as he waited for the admiral to arrive. He ran through the conversation in his mind - if he started with the conclusion, she'd try to argue, making a bad situation worse than it had to be. _I'll ease her into it,_ he thought, trying to convince himself that he had some kind of plan.

Hannah walked through the door as he was still mentally mapping the conversation. She went straight to business. "What happened?"

"It's complicated," Hackett lied. "There's intel saying Cerberus is linked to a series of refinery attacks, including our own."

Hannah looked confused. "Cerberus? But their base was blown to smithereens, their armies gutted."

Hackett frowned. "Their financial holdings, unfortunately, are resistant to bullets. Even with all the intel we discovered from the base's ruins, we still don't know of all their shell companies. They're still active and alive out there."

"But that doesn't make sense - after The Illusive Man's death, all of their activity splintered off. There's been reports of rogue soldiers raiding small colonies, but no real organized resistance."

He went to reply but was too slow. "They -"

She - of course - asked the worst possible question. "Who forwarded us this intel?"

The lump in Hackett's throat grew to near-choking proportions. "Tali'Zorah and the crew of the Normandy. They discovered it while looking for Shepard."

Now would have been a perfect time to discuss indoctrination from a logical perspective, but he wasn't quite ready to segue to that topic yet. Hoping to delay the emotional conflict a little longer, he addressed the question about Cerberus. "We've actually been expecting this. It was likely that someone would seize upon the name - as terrible as Cerberus was, it's still a brand that holds sway over a large segment of humanity. The surprise is more that they've reorganized so quickly and been able to recoup what's left of their holdings."

The name _Shepard_ had killed all of Hannah's interest in Cerberus' resurgence. "They found it looking for John? Is there any news about him?"

He did his best not to grimace. "Yes..." he trailed off, still trying to think of a way to formulate_ that_ message.

She was growing frustrated with Hackett's games. "Damn it Steven, just tell me."

Hackett relented. "There's circumstantial evidence that suggests that Shepard is involved with the refinery attacks."

"John would never attack Alliance holdings." Her tone made it clear that this wasn't an issue up for a debate.

Hackett shook his head. "Shepard wouldn't, but he's not himself."

Hannah squeezed her knuckles - it was becoming hard not take a swing at the admiral. "What are you saying?"

"They believe Shepard is..." He clasped his hands together, suffering under the word. "He shows signs of indoctrination."

Hannah's eyes bore a hole through his soul."The Reapers are dead, admiral."

This wasn't going well.

He did his best to explain. "The Reapers are dead, but their legacy remains - you've been briefed on Horizon, Hannah. Someone has gotten ahold of that tech and used it on Shepard."

"Do you know how preposterous that sounds?"

His best wasn't good enough. It was time for the big guns. "Look, this comes from Tali'Zorah herself - they found illustrations typical of indoctrinated patients. If even she thinks -"

"Illustrations?" Hannah exclaimed, pronouncing it like an offensive swear.

"Damn it Hannah!" Hackett exclaimed, pounding his fist on his table. "Do you really think I'd come to you about this with some crackpot theory? He may be your son, but I care for him as well - when I asked you to come onto this mission, I didn't think...I couldn't have predicted something like this.

"Terrible things are happening and Shepard is at the epicenter of it all. With the capture of the Crucible and return of Cerberus...if the choice is your son, and the safety of the galaxy, what are you going to pick, Hannah?"

He had gone too far now. "That's a choice I'll never have to make."

"Whoever has indoctrinated him means otherwise. I will take every attempt to capture him Hannah, but I can't guarantee..."

She refused to meet his gaze. "I can't be a part of this, Steven."

"I know."

Hannah walked out of the office, and this time, Hackett did not pursue.

* * *

The traitor and mongrel spent what seemed like an eternity in the apartment, waiting for their foul-smelling friend to come to. It was hard not to scream curses - indeed, when the filthy quarian had put its fingers into her face, she was tempted to bite them off. But small victories did nothing to fulfill her true goal.

She had played the part of a corpse perfectly - once again, Cerberus' vision had saved the phantom in her moment of need. The cybernetics within her body pumped just enough oxygen through her veins to keep her alive, allowing her body to stay inert as possible.

All that remained was to actually escape the apartment. Unfortunately, with a broken neck, she wasn't going to be able to walk out - all the feeling from her shoulders down was gone. A trivial matter for Cerberus, to be sure, but she had to get the treatment first.

When the apartment's door finally shut, she waited five agonizing minutes, ensuring they were truly out of earshot and would not return.

"Omni-tool, activate," she whispered, just loud enough to be detected.

The orange glow covered her inert wrist.

"Contact Rannoch HQ," the phantom mouthed, waiting for the signal that was going to determine if she lived or died.

"Agent Pallida?" a deep voice answered.

"Speaking," the phantom managed. She hoped this would be a short conversation.

"What have you to report on the mission?"

"Complete failure," Pallida admitted, shame coating her every word. It had been bad enough to let Cerberus down - they had given her an essential task, the largest opportunity of her career...and she had blown it. But asking for a second chance when she knew she didn't deserve it?

It would have been more honorable to activate her ocular flashbang and end it all. It was too bad the quarian was an essential target - she could have killed all four of them at once.

The idea of kidnapping the dextro whore and slaughtering her two friends gave her the strength to ask for help. "I need pick up."

"I see," the deep voice replied, too neutral for comfort.

"I will rectify this," Agent Pallida insisted, bargaining for her own life.

"You have already failed."

She sensed the end of the comm coming and made her final appeal. "I will be driven...I will live, eat, and sleep my pursuit."

"We need the quarian alive," he remarked and Pallida saw her opening - as much as she had fallen short, she was still their best agent in a dwindling pool.

"Tali'Zorah and her friends are my only reasons for living."

There was a long pause on the other end of the line. "Have the police arrived yet?"

"No, but I'm unable to move," she confessed. "You'll need to send a large enough squad to kill the quarians inspecting my body."

"You're unable to move?" the man asked, sudden dissatisfaction returning to his voice.

"It will be easily repaired," Pallida insisted. "Hurry, before they come and drag my body out of here."

"Fine," the aggravated voice conceded, ending the call.

Curling her lips as much as she could, Pallida smiled.

It was a very fortunate thing that they only needed the quarian alive.


	7. Chapter 7

The captain's quarters had finally been decontaminated.

Now, at last, she could have a doughnut.

Pulling off her mask, Tali bit into the calorie-filled snack. It meshed perfectly against her teeth, providing a rush of energy. It was delicious but sweet - too sweet, really. Her palette hadn't fully adapted from a life of nutrient paste.

There was a knock against the cabin's door. "Hello?" It was the thief.

"One moment," Tali answered, her mouth still full. She swallowed the remainder of the sugary pastry and shoved another doughnut into her mouth. She struggled to eat the entire serving at once - Tali had bitten off more than she could chew. Taking a gulp of water and straining, she thoroughly managed to make the entire experience of eating sweets unpleasant.

But she had gotten it down. Pulling her mask back on, she decided to let Kasumi and her germs in.

The thief strolled to the bed and took a seat next to Tali.

"How'd the call with Raan go?" Kasumi asked.

"Never got ahold of her," Tali replied. "She was off-world on a diplomatic mission. I sent her a message, but I haven't got anything back yet."

The quarian seemed pensive. Kasumi did her best to lift her spirits. "I'm sure she's okay. You should have seen her after the wedding. Raan was the only one keeping things from falling apart."

Somehow, bringing up how Tali had ditched her aunt didn't improve the quarian's mood. "You're probably right." She paused, going onto another unpleasant thought. "I haven't heard back from Hannah either." Neglecting to get ahold of Shepard's mother was, again, not one of Tali's finest moments.

"You shouldn't be so hard on yourself," Kasumi insisted. "It's not everyday that your husband leaves you at the altar under the influence of mind control."

"It's not a joke," Tali remarked. While the thief usually was good at making her smile, the idea of Shepard being malevolently controlled was not a laughing matter. It was hard not to think of him, how alone and trapped he must feel, imprisoned in the confines of his own thoughts...

The warmth drained out of Kasumi's voice. "Sorry," she apologized. "After we find him, I'm sure we'll be able to help him," Kasumi offered, doing her best to be reassuring.

Tali's answer was unusually grim. "No one has ever been 'helped' with their indoctrination outside of a bullet."

Kasumi fell silent. She suddenly had the sense she was intruding. "I...would it help if I left, Tali?"

The quarian shook her head. "No, I just...this has been...I shouldn't take it out on you. I'm sorry."

Kasumi rested a hand on her friend's knee. "You don't have anything to apologize for. The amount of stress you've been under...I don't think I could manage like you have."

"I'm sitting in here eating doughnuts while John is suffering." Tali shook her head. "It's not enough."

"You need to pace yourself," Kasumi insisted. "Beating yourself up won't bring Shep back."

Tali turned her head to the aquarium, watching the fish swim against placid water. Only the tiniest ripples vibrated through the tank as the bubbles floated upward. Was it like that, she wondered - slowly drowning, until you forgot there was such a thing as breath? Or was it more like fiery asphyxiation, distant hands choking away will until all that was him burned away?

A synthetic voice woke her from her morbid daydreams. "Tali, I have some recent reports that may interest you."

"Yes, EDI?" the quarian asked, her interested peaked.

"Analyzing the string of refinery attacks in closer detail has confirmed likely Cerberus involvement - initially, agents used unmarked vehicles or only partially equipped soldiers to give an impression of post-War looters. But the trajectory plotted by Commander Shepard correlates too closely for it to be a coincidence.

"I have been analyzing refinery yields in conjunction with proximity to other attack sites. The closest high value target would be the quarian and geth holding of Ahlgruve."

"You think Cerberus will try to raid the refinery soon?" Kasumi asked.

A blue-tinted hologram popped into view, hanging where EDI's original display once lurked. "I have been exchanging messages with Liara through the Extranet - there have been reports of unmarked frigates hovering around the edges of the Veil. Given that Ahlgruve's mineral deposits are buried deep within the planet's crust, it would require an unusually large force to quickly extract it from the tunnels."

Tali watched as the hologram filled out, its display showing the depths of the subterranean network. The tunnels twisted and turned endlessly, consuming every crevice of space before finally converging at the core, the workers' tireless effort only impeded by molten lava.

For all that Tali cared, the surface could have been flooded by magma - Cerberus was the only link they had left. "How soon can we get there?" she asked.

"Garrus has already been briefed with this information and plotted a course for the Normandy," the AI answered. "Given that Ahlgruve is within the Veil's boundaries, we should be able to arrive shortly,"

Tali sighed. Whatever shortly was, it wasn't soon enough.

* * *

She sat still in the speeding vehicle, trying not to lose her sugary meal. Garrus' handling of the Hammerhead left much to be desired - at every divot and slight curve within Ahlgruve's yellow dunes, he took a sudden and uneven turn.

"Why didn't Cortez want to be our pilot?" Tali asked, wondering why they hadn't gone with a more professional and steady hand.

"Cortez is on shore leave, just like Traynor - non-essential staff were given some much needed time off," Garrus answered, skirting away from mentioning the lighter load was originally planned for the honeymoon voyage. He had grown concerned with how brooding she had become - the quarian spent all of her time holed up in the captain's cabin, scrolling through Extranet reports, trying to find any hint or sign of Shepard.

If Kasumi didn't periodically come by to visit, she probably wouldn't even remember to eat - Tali was a rare sight in the mess hall.

"Besides," he finished. "I like driving."

Tali's stomach lurched as he answered. The turian had flown full throttle through a field and then hopped over a hill at full force, causing her to almost tumble onto the floor.

Her usually agile friend had not been as lucky. "I never thought I'd miss the Mako," Kasumi commented as she fell ass first onto the Hammerhead's hard floor, lightly conking her head against one of the cramped interior's walls.

"Damaged the Mako's undercarriage by driving it over a few too many bumpy spots on Rannoch," Garrus informed them.

"How did you...Rannoch is all _plains_," Tali protested.

"They sneak up on you," he remarked as he throttled next to one of Ahlgruve's tiny mountain ranges, hopping over each rock formation to reach the next. "Not sure why this thing doesn't have seat belts."

EDI comfortably sat in the back in the vehicle, her increased mass preventing uncomfortable falls. She was prompt with her answer for the less fortunate. "It was discovered that the rapid velocity that often resulted in minor crew injury was actually enhanced by safety locks - internal injuries rose sharply as the restraints collided with flesh at high velocity. Also, it is only marginally faster to directly cross over rock formations - you could maintain proper control of the vehicle if you simply drove around them."

Garrus shook his head. "Sometimes they branch off into other mountains or rocks. Always seemed faster to me this way."

"You have a map," the AI offered.

"It..." Garrus paused, trying to explain his feelings. "When you're in the zone driving...you don't want to put a barrier between you and the vehicle, you know?"

"No," EDI remarked. "I usually aim to follow procedure as efficiently as possible."

"Well...there's an art to driving, a feeling in your gut -"

Tali interrupted his rambling. "Garrus, if you make any more art, I'm going to be sick."

"You don't want to see what happens when a quarian throws up into their helmet," the thief added. "It's not pretty."

"Kasumi, I told you never to tell anyone about-"

"Fine," he interrupted, cutting off the argument. "We're almost there anyway." Garrus' shoulders sunk unhappily as he de-accelerated into a decidedly philistine speed.

Only a few minutes went by before they pulled over to their destination, a large white complex next to a sizable hatch, sealing the entry to Ahlgruve's tunnels.

Garrus idled the Hammerhead, as if waiting for something. "You know, I was kind of expecting for Cerberus to jump us once we got here." He waited a few moments and killed the engine once it was apparent they were alone.

A quarian eyed them from behind one of the complex's windows, idly fidgeting until the Hammerhead emptied. Once all four of them had exited the vehicle, he raced out and gestured his hands in exaggerated welcome. "It's great to see you," he insisted, his voice unusually cheery.

"I assumed you got our warning about Cerberus activity?" Garrus asked, slightly perturbed.

"You mean the stage play?" the emotive quarian asked. "That's not for a few months at least. It's adorable that you'd ask in character and come in costume, but we've already got a great Garrus lined up." He paused, realizing that he might have hurt the aspiring thespian's feelings. "I'm sure that you're a great actor, but you've gone overkill on the scars - wouldn't sell well with our female audience. I admire your dedication, but..."

His voice dropped to hushed tones, despite being in an otherwise empty desert. "They don't really give me enough of a budget to put on a real artistic piece. Always have to pander to the lowest common denominator, you know? But I'll take your card - maybe if this works out, I'll have the freedom for a more serious project. I've always wanted to direct a film about the fall of Shanxi from the turians' perspective. The quarians understand being unfairly portrayed by history, a lot of races do - Shanxi is definitely one of those rare opportunities to create something with a true vision behind it that comes with blockbuster appeal."

The quarian's filters finally fell silent and he outstretched a palm, as if waiting for the turian's credentials.

Garrus was taken back by the time he finally had a chance to speak. "I...don't have a card."

The muscles in the quarian's neck contracted. "Oh, my boy, no wonder you're looking for work - you really need an agent. My rates aren't cheap, but I'm actually available if you -"

Tali's patience had frayed. "We actually came to see the tunnels."

The talkative quarian feigned embarrassment. "My apologies - your costumes are so professional, I mistook you for actors. But, I'm sorry to say, the tunnels are closed down today - tours aren't until next month. The museum behind me, however, has all the interesting information touris..." he corrected himself, making sure to respect their immersion. "The museum has all the information intrepid defenders of the galaxy like yourselves seek."

Garrus shook his head. "We're on a serious mission. Spectre authority allows me access into the tunnels." He pulled out a datapad, displaying his credentials.

The talkative quarian squinted and examined the display. "That's really impressive. Between this, the costumes, and the replica Hammerhead, you must be dedicated patrons of the arts. Have you considered a donation to the Ahlgruve Foundation for Culture?"

Garrus sighed. "I'm prepared to make a donation if you can get us into the tunnels." He pulled out a credit chit and handed it to the annoying quarian. The Ahlgruvian examined the spectre-funded chit, ensuring it was genuine by running a protocol on his omni-tool.

Once the available credit line was established on his display, the quarian began to stutter. "Oh, of - yes, I...let's get into the tunnels right away, yes? Right away." The tour guide dashed into the museum, visibly looking for something behind the windows' panes. He re-emerged shortly with hazmat suits. "You'll need these," he said, handing them to Garrus, Kasumi, and EDI.

"I thought Element Zero wasn't harmful in solid state form," Kasumi remarked, looking down distastefully at the suits. Although she was fond of her quarian friend, their airtight style of clothing was a bit snug even for her.

The talkative quarian shook his head. "Poisonous gasses run through the tunnels. You'll slowly die down there without some kind of filtration."

EDI attempted to hand back her hazmat suit. "This platform doesn't require oxygen to function. I will be fine without any filtration."

The tour guide insisted, pushing the protection back toward the AI. "Again, ma'am, it's commendable how seriously you take your mission, but I can't allow you into the tunnels without a suit. If it helps, maybe think of it as protection from rust? I'm sure something down there could corrode you."

EDI went to argue with him, but Garrus shot her a knowing look - it would be easier to just play along with the Ahlgruvian. In the brief time he'd known the chatty quarian, he'd already got the feeling that the tour guide would obsessively attempt to nickel and dime them. Adding their reputations as an exploitable resource would just be another annoyance.

If they could even convince him. The male quarian walked around the Normandy's crew, examining their costumes. He lingered a little too long behind the women. "Now...there isn't any polite way to say this, but the tunnels are rather lengthy and there are few opportunities to exit. I know that you're dedicated to your craft, but the padding you've placed into your clothing likely will chafe. There's a bathroom inside the museum you can change in, if need be."

Tali had to fight the urge to slap him. "None of us are wearing padding," she replied sternly.

The tour guide turned his eyes to the top heavy "robot," relatively sure he was correct in his assessment. But pushing the issue would only serve to alienate his peculiar, roleplaying customers. _Wealthy customers,_ he reminded himself. It would best to keep their trip through the tunnels as lengthy as possible - rubes with specific tastes and money to spend were a gold mine.

But even if chafing ended their time together abruptly, aggravating his customers further would result in a net loss. "My sincerest apologies. I am impressed by both your adaption to your roles and your...ability to fit into the parts." He flashed a picture of a woman on his omni-tool, with two children wrapped in her arms. "I meant nothing inappropriate by my comments - as you can see, I'm happily married."

Tali thought it was a bit odd he wasn't in the picture, but she wasn't willing to endure unnecessary conversation with the huckster. "Don't worry about it," she grumbled.

The tour guide did his best to rapidly change the subject. They had been insistent on entering Ahlgruve's tunnels, after all - he already had a definite "in" that would smooth things over. "Now, were you interested in seeing the Eastern or Western refineries? We'll pass archaeological digs either way."

The four travellers looked at each other. "There's two different refineries?" Garrus asked.

The tour guide shook his head excitedly, doing his best to hype his customers. "Oh yes. It's a long walk to both, but they each have distinct industrial ways of processing eezo relative to the dig conditions."

"We should likely split up then," Garrus remarked. "I can pay extra for a second tour guide."

The male quarian rapidly pressed his wrist and toyed with his omni-tool. He silently typed a message that would go unheard by the awaiting tourists. "Daven, I need you right away - we have rich marks who want a tour." Remembering that Daven was more used to washing toilet bowls than explaining ancient ruins, the quarian added, "Just make stuff up if you have to, but we can't afford to turn this chance down."

The tour guide swiped his omni-tool and a hissing sound escaped the large hatch as it unlocked, opening the pathway into the labyrinth. "Now, which of you two want to come with me?" he asked.

"I'm ready," Tali replied, eager to stop wasting time and get to a refinery. Cerberus could already be there.

"I'll go with Tali," Garrus remarked. "That'll give us an engineer per team, in case we have to deal with any Cerberus tech."

"Good thinking," the tour guide replied, doing his best to play along. "You can never be too careful with Hades' dogs."

"Right," Garrus deadpanned, growing more tired of the tour guide by the minute. "Lead the way."

The male quarian nodded as he walked next to the gaping hole in the ground. It looked wide enough to fit a dreadnought through it. The tunnel was nearly pitch black as well, with only the faintest details making their way past Tali's visor.

The tour guide flicked a dim light from his omni-tool on and mounted a ladder on the tunnel's side. "You'll need to be very careful entering the tunnels - we usually have a crane, but during the offseason, there's only this ladder. If you fall..."

"We'll be fine," Garrus insisted, waiting for the man to descend. After there was enough space to comfortably climb down, he got on the ladder himself and began to step down. Tali followed shortly after, making Garrus regret the order he had chosen to descend the railing - while he knew better than to come onto her, it was still hard not to look.

As they went deeper and deeper into Ahlgruve's crust, he found himself appreciating the lack of light. He was good at denying temptation, but removing himself from the situation entirely was a safer bet - even if it was just window shopping, he still felt guilty.

As his mind drifted from the view, he realized they'd been going down the ladder for quite some time - his arms and legs were beginning to ache, and he had to slow his pace, not wanting to errantly miss a rung and fall to his death. He went to increase the intensity of his omni-tool's light, but the tour guide overruled him. "You'll need to keep the power reserves for that up - the tunnels are quite lengthy." Garrus turned the omni-tool's luminosity down and did his best to pay attention to the many rungs.

His palms were beginning to sweat from the exertion, trapping the moisture underneath the protective layer of the hazmat suit. He almost slid a damp hand off the ladder, but managed to correct himself before plummeting below. The near-fall made him paranoid, and he suddenly felt an urgent need to get off the ladder...but there was nowhere to go but down.

He bit his tongue and did his best to continue. Tali's pace seemed to be increasing as they lowered into the labyrinth - he found himself needing to hurry as she moved faster down the tunnels, her leg coming perilously close to hitting his hand off the rungs. Garrus asked her slow to down, but was only greeted back with a faint grunt of acknowledgement and a quick return to dangerous speeds.

He was beginning to feel on edge, stuck between a quarian's obsession and a hard place - he struggled to get the images of falling to his death out of his mind._ All it takes is one little slip_, it whispered, every movement down its own special risk. He found himself breathing raggedly as he begun to panic - he_ needed_ off this ladder. Every moment he stayed on was another chance to kill himself.

He begun descending rapidly as Tali had, mindlessly trying to think of nothing but the journey. His movements became robotic, stressing his muscles as much as they would go. He was beginning to make distance from her, but at a high cost - he was fingertip precision away from missing a rung and tumbling below.

Garrus had lost all sense of awareness - there was nothing but the climb down. He almost didn't feel it when his leg came into contact with the tour guide's head, kicking him off the ladder.

"Argh!" the poor man screamed, as he fell onto the tunnel floor with a thud. Garrus could only imagine the sickening landing as their guide's cry echoed in the chamber.

A loud groan came from below. "You could have killed me if we were any higher," the male quarian complained.

Garrus allowed himself a brief glance backwards and down - they were only a few yards away from the bottom of the chasm.

He had paused for too long - Tali's rear came into contact with his head, causing him to stumble off the ladder as well. He landed on male quarian's hand, hearing a loud scream as his metal armor crushed it.

Garrus did his best to rapidly roll over and get off the man's fingers. He tried to help the tour guide up, but the quarian waved him off with his good hand.

"Leave me be," he moaned, fiddling through his pockets for a mix of medi-gel and painkillers. Still on the floor, his body tensed as he allowed the drugs to overwhelm his damaged nerves.

"That looks terrible," Tali commented, having climbed all the way down. His hand split apart in ways bones were never meant to be arranged. "We should climb back up, get you help." She thought about calling up to EDI and Kasumi, but she doubted her voice would carry that far - looking up, the light from the surface seemed as far away as the stars.

The tour guide paused but for a moment. "...No, I will be fine. This is too important."

"We're in a hurry, but we can wait for someone else to be sent out," Garrus insisted. "You're not going to be able to climb that ladder with a bad hand."

"No, no," the tour guide replied. "This needs my personal oversight. We can send for help when the tour is over."

"But you said yourself this is a difficult journey," Tali remarked. "Are you sure you'll be okay?"

"I can barely feel the pain," the male quarian lied. "Besides, I can hardly miss sharing the catacombs with such dedicated explorers."

"Catacombs?" Tali asked. "I thought this was a refinery."

The tour guide shook his head. "These tunnels have been adapted for mining, but in truth, these halls are the grave of a long dead civilization."

He turned to them with manufactured confidence, learned from many days in front of a mirror. "Come, there is much to see..."

They followed him then as he journeyed through the Western Mouth of Ahlgruve, entering the labyrinth's oversized and endless paths.

* * *

It did not take long for the sheer scale to overwhelm the travelers - there was an overwhelming sense of smallness in the spacious catacombs. The ceiling towered over them, being more than three times their height - it was as if they had trespassed into the land of giants.

The most distinctive feature was the complete lack of metal or signs of modern technology - it was as if some god had pressed a finger into the earth, rapidly sundering the crust. "How could they even build this?" Tali asked in awe.

The tour guide chuckled. "The original Ahlgruvians lived here billions of years ago, when the atmosphere was far denser. It's uncomfortably hot now, but the first life that managed to evolve here lived primarily in caves or shallow holes in the dirt. Colonists like to refer to them as 'the Ulanui,' but that name is only a colloquialism - what they truly called themselves was unfortunately lost to time. Their handiwork, however, has endured.

"There are smaller ruins elsewhere, homes to blind cave people, beings who never saw the sun. Given that the surface was death to them, they branched out below. These catacombs are both a home and a monument, maintained in honor of a divine queen. She was believed to be everlasting despite countless deaths - the ulanui's few remaining artifacts suggest a strong belief in reincarnation."

The tour guide stopped and raised the brightness of his omni-tool slightly. He pointed to a slight indentation in a tunnel wall, a scrawl that had once been massive but faded over time. The "word" appeared to be little more than nonsense to Tali and Garrus, but as always, the tour guide was quick with his explanation.

"We have little left of their culture and language - a mass extinction event annihilated the ulanui people in one rapid genocide. It's hard to know for certain, but it was likely the work of the Reapers - the dearth of true ruins points to a systematic attempt to remove any trace of their people.

"But from the few scraps of writing that survived, the rare words and marks etched into the cave walls, the best guess is that the repeated indentations are a word of honor and continued blessing - the queen's seal, ensuring the eternity of its empire."

"Looks like they needed a better seal," Garrus intoned, looking around at the vast empty space around him.

"It?" Tali asked, focusing on the lack of gender.

"Yes," the tour guide replied, fiddling with the light setting on his omni-tool. He feigned being frustrated and turned it off. "One moment." He strained with his good hand to completely reach lower end of his opposite side, unable to use his natural hand for such a task. Making his way to his lower right leg, he pulled out a rod from a particularly lengthy pocket. It extended slightly when he pulled it.

A small flick of a spark appeared from his omni-tool and the rod erupted into flames, its tip the home of a roaring blue fire. "The gases react quite beautifully with the flame - it's fortunate most of them are not combustible."

"Most?" Garrus asked, an understandable hint of concern in his voice.

"A joke, I assure you," the tour guide replied as he led them on, finally finished with his parlor trick. It was cheesy, but it still sold well - there was much ambience in carrying a traditional torch. "Now, where was I..."

"Their gender," Tali reminded him.

"Ah, yes, their gender," the tour guide started. "While we know little about ulanui culture, their fossils abound - the catacombs are pocked with their bony carcasses. We were fortunate enough to extract several strands of DNA, giving us a clear picture of what were like.

"You asked me before how these tunnels could be constructed, but I never really answered you. Well, the answer lies within the ulanui themselves."

He fiddled with his omni-tool again, finding much difficulty with his limited number of useful fingers. "While we're too far down and shielded by Ahlgruve's ores to obtain an Extranet signal, I do have a projection of what they look like saved right here, on my omni-tool..."

As the tour guide had predicted, the pair moved closer toward him to stare at his wrist. "Display ulanui," he commanded.

The figure displayed by the omni-tool was squat and hunched, drenched in grey and translucent skin. Its back and shoulders were fused together, as if they'd been crafted with too much material - a large lump rested on its upper spine.

Red blotches of large, protruding pupils were its "eyes" - as the animated figured slowly shifted, their display gave off a sense of dormancy, as if they were sensors for something less mundane than vision. Its skull was otherwise featureless, other than a thin, horizontal slit for a "mouth," a simple fold sliced in where skin would be.

The travelers cringed at the thing's movements - the rippling, see-through flesh over the maze of beating black organs was bearable in still form, but when it moved...Tali could almost feel its guts beating, like an overconnected network of hearts. They moved in some kind of eerie unified rhythm, no part isolated from the next.

Its hands and feet looked more like tools than appendages - its arms branched off into palms of open circles, and the creature's legs started off thick at the top, only to taper off into something thin and inorganically flat at the base, its feet looking more like a trowel than something a living being could maintain.

"_This_ is an ulanuian drone," the tour guide exclaimed excitedly.

"It's...disgusting," Tali replied, unable to hide her feelings, even with the tour guide's displayed affection for the creature.

"I doubt anyone would disagree with you," the quarian tour guide lamented. "But once you learn of their great accomplishments, their unique biology...it's hard not to see something beautiful."

"...Sure," Tali replied, finding herself taking a step back from the guide.

"How did_ that_ build all this?" Garrus asked, his arms outstretched to convey disbelief that such a pitiful creature could accomplish something so vast.

The tour guide struggled to put the creature's majesty into context. "The ulanui are...they're a miracle of evolution, the bipedal outgrowth of a species of insects, their primary common ancestors not unlike the human's 'ants.' Only the queen and her court are suspected to have developed any kind of willful intelligence - all their drones were mindless husks, slaves willing to destroy and cripple their own bodies at her call._ That_ is how these catacombs were built - this soil you stand on is littered with the debris of their carcasses, each drone digging until exhaustion took it, its resource filled hump devoured by other ulanui still able to serve the queen."

Tali moved to a different kind of awe, a pungent repulsion. "That's...that's terrible! They were all slaves?"

The male quarian shook his head fervently. "No, no - we suspect they likely felt only the traces of pain. They were more like automatons than 'people,' devoid of original thought. They were asexual, beings without desire, more controlled by the queen and her emissaries' pheromones than themselves. They were her children and they served their mother the best they could."

"Her _children_?" Tali asked incredulously. There were many words for what the ulanui were, but "children" was not one of them.

The tour guide was beginning to get annoyed. "It's not your place to judge their culture - from our excavations, they seemed to have had enough intelligence to form a sort of true oligarchy, a civilization where only the people who had power were actually 'persons.' Their lower subjects were hardly able to 'suffer,' lacking all forms of intelligence. If they could, we'd have seen some sign of rebellion, but all that is there is ardent worship - these halls themselves are a testament to the queen. Why else would such a tiny being construct tunnels so large, but to allow their monarch passage?"

Garrus looked up at the massive network of holes, trying to take in the enormity of what the male quarian was suggesting. "The queen...was as big as one of these tunnels."

The male quarian nodded. "Her abdomen was eternally full of scores of children, ready to give birth daily - she was so immense, she could not move of her own power. Drones had to push her slime-covered, lubricated form down the halls if she wished to travel and deposit a trove of servants, each born ready to entrench themselves into walls and dig deeper into the crust, expanding the queen's domain. Their multitude was so great and lack of will so that useful hordes of drones died to dig a single inch into the pressure-filled layers near the core...but, somehow, they managed. With the emissaries to spread her will and a production potential unmatched by even the rachni, the ulanui can accomplish anything."

"Well, except not being dead," Garrus quipped.

"We have their DNA," the male quarian replied, his voice taking on dark tones. "Your contribution will bring us one step closer to bringing them back. Think of it, the ulanuian wonder of the galaxy. A living planet, with nerves for tunnels, its lifeblood the people it once spawned eons ago..."

"You _can't_ be serious," Tali exclaimed. "The Council forbids basic genetic engineering, let alone reviving a dead race!"

The male quarian pointed an accusatory finger at her. "Your lover thought it was a great idea to let the rachni go free. I'm not sure how there's any difference between my people and the ones he restored. And the Council...let the Council try to enter these tunnels, fight the ulanui in their own lands. They will be slaughtered, much like anyone else who tried to evolve on their planet."

"Figured out we're not actors, did you?" Garrus asked in a condescending tone. He had found the man's vision disturbing, but provoking Tali on the issue of Shepard was a step too far. If he pushed any harder...

"I've known all along," the male quarian insisted. "What's better than to play a fool to get real ones to drop their guards," he sneered. He knew better than to provoke them, but he was just so_ angry,_so furious at their rejection, when it was within their power to do something so beautiful...

Garrus went to hit the madman, but the male quarian anticipated his attack. He ducked, and yelled out in a squeal that echoed throughout the empty tunnels. "If you hit me, I'll leave you here to die! The catacombs run for miles, you'd never find your way out without me!"

Garrus dropped his raised arm. "Fine. But if you lead us somewhere other than the refinery, I'll kill you."

"I have been truthful in that," the guide insisted. "You will soon see."

The three marched on silently, walking through the evenly crafted tunnels, their perfect shape matching the precise will of their queen. Tali had thought spiders were bad - realizing that every step she took was traced by one of those _things_ truly haunted her. Her subconscious spilled over with images of drones slithering over her skin and biting her flesh slowly, enjoying a slow feast with that unfinished mouth...she hardly noticed when the walls started to glow a faint blue.

"Eezo," Garrus exclaimed, realizing they were now traversing through a labyrinth carved out of the most valuable material in the galaxy.

"Indeed," their guide remarked. "Ahlgruve was almost certainly pelted with several asteroids during its formation, giving it a massive layer of Element Zero. As the ulanui progressed through the planet and reached these reservoirs, they evolved to gain some form of biotic abilities, allowing them to endure intense pressure and heat with specialized barriers. Their red 'eyes' actually are sensors for certain traces of minerals that later adapted beyond food and water to include the galaxy's most vital resource."

He stopped next to a segment of the wall that glowed a little brighter than the others. "As you can see, I have been faithful to you in leading you toward the refinery. I will hope you be so kind with me and the payment you have promised - you may not agree with my methods, but it is not your place to deny me."

Tali resisted the urge to say something spiteful and instead turned to Garrus. Whatever they decided on doing about the guide's plans, they could not afford to risk alienating him now.

Garrus did his best to sound convincing. "We owe you fair and square. Whatever you do with the money is your business."

The male quarian seemed pleased at his words, despite how hollow the turian felt they sounded - perhaps the guide's passion for the insect people was blinding him. "Good, good - you will see in time that you will have a wondrous legacy, to have played a small part in their return..."

The guide seemed re-energized with Garrus' compliment. He rambled once again about the planet's history and ulanui mating rituals, where the queen would consume one consenting, "blessed" emissary and disperse the victim's DNA throughout her abdomen, igniting the next generation that would live through them.

"All ulanui share all possible DNA for each class," he informed them. "A drone, with sufficient nutrition and stimulation, could metamorphose into a queen. But that could only occur with both a cessation of order signals and a special pheromone, one that is spread by the body of a rotting queen. Any metamorphosing drone or emissary emits its own far-reaching pheromone, signaling to other subjects that a replacement queen was already being reborn.

"It's all part of their genderless society, the vision of nature - we've tried many times to eliminate poverty and inequality, but evolution is smarter than us. The worker class will never go away, they'll always be needed for society to function. But with their superior biology, their genes that eliminates workers from personhood...they have been encoded with true equality."

His endless pitch was like poison to Tali - every detail she learned about the bugs' past was like a nail into her eardrums. The walls were beginning to bear down on her, their large form somehow growing closer. From the corner of her eyes she thought she saw things, snippets of beings who weren't really there, legions of extinct bugs that would rise again from the catacombs, re-establishing their empire with her as their first snack.

Truly, she hated this place, this hell beneath the surface.

"Come here," the annoying quarian insisted as he led them to a tunnel that aimed down into a stark decline. It seemed almost as deep as the chasm they'd initially traveled down. "Now, watch your step-"

Part of the ground gave way under the guide. He fell to his side, his body landing on his crushed hand, eliciting a long scream. He rolled down the steep hill and into darkness, disappearing as he descended too far for the faint blue light to reveal.

Garrus and Tali raced down the incline as safely as they could, avoiding the hole their guide had fallen in. "Are you okay?" Garrus called out, a little too loudly. His voice echoed loudly throughout the endless catacombs, traveling for miles.

The crust began to shake at his cry, and a segment of loose rock crumbled from the ceiling and fell on them. It knocked them to their feet and out of their wits.

* * *

_Ungh..._

Garrus woke up uncomfortable again, his back sore.

He really had to stop sleeping in his armor. Blinking in the dim eezo-lit light, it took him a moment to realize he was in the catacombs. "Damn it," he moaned. This was turning out to be one of_ those_ missions.

He shook rubble from his face and then cleared the rocks covering the pile that was Tali. They had been fortunate - the way behind them had been completely engulfed in stone. A few yards closer and they would have been killed instantly.

Not that the rock collapse had been any sort of blessing - while he hardly had memorized the way back, sealing them from the only exit they knew was a bad thing. As he did his best to rouse Tali, he noted that their fallen guide was nowhere to be seen. Garrus faintly called out to the male quarian, but only his echo answered.

When it was clear they were alone, he turned his attention back to his snoring companion. "Tali, we need to get moving."

"Hmmfhgh," she moaned, not wanting to rise.

"Tali, you're sleeping on the bug people's floor."

That got her half-drowsy attention - she bolted upright, loose rubble rolling off her body. The now partially awake Tali struggled to focus, scanning the tunnel walls to reorient her sleepy mind. When she noticed the collapsed rubble, her heart raced. "Keelah, we're trapped." After that unpleasant thought had wrapped around her brain, she continued on with a question. "Wait, where's the guide?"

Garrus grit his teeth. "Somewhere down there," he intoned, gesturing to the labyrinth's only remaining path.

Tali stared off into the inky blackness. "Well...I suppose there's only one way forward," she remarked with trepidation, wondering what had made their odd companion abandon them. She stood still for a moment, looking around the halls as if she expected a better alternative to appear before descending.

They walked down the incline for what seemed like hours, not daring to check the time with their omni-tools. They would conserve every drop of their remaining battery life, only succumbing to using them for light if the eezo-glow faded. Of course, if they went in a direction where the light dimmed, they were probably going the wrong way - the Western Refinery was their only reliable clue to a likely exit.

The prospect of leaving encouraged both of them to move onward through the labyrinth, but its appeal was beginning to fade against exhaustion. They couldn't place exactly how long their trek through the catacombs had been, but their bodies had taken a toll from descending down the ladder and following the many tunnels their guide had lead them through. The quarian was conspicuous in his absence - it was like he had been swallowed up by the ore, a secret underground passageway devouring him.

Garrus began to wonder how they'd manage to escape this place - it felt like the tunnels went on forever, like they'd fallen into some cruel cosmic loop that ran the same bare details over and over. He realized they could be going in a giant circle and he'd never know.

They reached the end of the steep drop and surveyed the area. It had been clawed out at the sides, turning the already huge tunnel into a great expanse - modern equipment was strewn about the floor, making them carefully look down to avoid tripping on a pickaxe.

"Garrus," Tali whispered. "I think this is one of those excavation sites."

"You're probably right," Garrus agreed, looking over one of the craftsmen's tools. "This is a tiny edge for mining - would only be useful if you were trying to be delicate."

"Mm," Tali muttered, still trying to squint in the dark. The blue light only went so far - the room seemed like one giant expanse, having no real borders. "Let's hug the walls - we'll run into a tunnel that way."

"Good idea," Garrus replied, taking her side as they followed the western wall. As they traversed the room, his foot connected with a thin rod, severing it in two. "Look, Tali - that's the guide's torch."

"And no guide," she observed, not quite happily - while she did hate his creepy behavior, the idea of dying in the catacombs was still worse. "This is weird," she remarked, digging in the dirt next to where the torch had been. She unearthed a small metal pyramid. "It has blue lines and circuitry..."

She turned it over and tapped the bottom of the shape just as she realized what it was. "Reaper tech!" she exclaimed, tossing the pyramid away. Midair, it shot out several thin tendrils with pointed ends before landing and burrowing itself in the ground.

Garrus pulled out his gun but Tali grabbed his arm. "What are you doing? You'll cause another collapse."

He reluctantly lowered his Carnifex, but didn't holster it. "I don't like to take chances with Reaper tech."

"Neither do I, but there's not a 'chance' of collapse if you fire your gun - the archaeologists hollowed out the supports here," she countered.

He sighed heavily. "Fine. But we turn on our omni-tools and scan for any underground anomalies."

Tali started to argue but thought better of it - as much as being without light scared her, she couldn't ignore the possibility of getting killed (or worse) by reaper tech. "All right," she relented, turning on her omni-tool. "But only until we get out of the dig site."

Garrus nodded and they continued to hug the wall, occasionally diverting their movements in correlation to their scanner's advice. While many of the results were likely false positives, taking chances seemed unnecessary. They tiptoed through the lurking landmines as they progressed, moving ever closer to a destination they weren't sure existed.

They marched forward until Tali made out the shape of a head. "You see that?" she whispered, not trying to attract its attention.

Garrus squinted. "I _think_ that's a fossil." He inched closer towards it with his gun drawn out of habit, seeking to confirm if it was friend or foe.

He hardly noticed the old ribcage he stepped over until it was too late. The blue glittering bone shone in activation and seized, clamping onto his leg. "What the-" he cried, as the bone started to apply more pressure, desperately trying to sink into his skin.

He struggled to move, but his leg was completely trapped in the bone prison. "Tali, I can't -" the bone seemed to energize by the vocal confirmation it had ensnared someone and it split its maw for a fraction of a second before rapidly clamping back down on Garrus' leg. Frustrated by tasting only metal, the fossilized prison made one last gasp, thrusting upon him with all of its might.

It raced at unthinkable velocity into the direction of his flesh but failed, the bone breaking and turning to dust from colliding at such speeds against metal. Garrus freed his foot and took several steps back, doing anything he could to get away from the abomination. "That's...a new one," he commented breathlessly, still taken aback.

Tali shook her head. "This place just wasn't creepy enough, they had to add living bones."

He paused, thinking over the ruins. "I guess that explains the buried pyramids - some kind of reaper tech that embeds itself into marrow and nerves."

"You wouldn't think there'd be enough organic material to bond with ancient bones," she remarked.

"Well, you heard the guide - those ulanui are all kinds of special."

Somehow, Tali didn't appreciate his playful tone.

They moved on, doing their best to avoid both bone fragments and scanner anomalies. Every step felt like death - Tali wondered if the bones could fly out of the dirt, seizing her leg in ways she could never anticipate.

She had seen a lot of terrible things in the War, but this place...the hollowed out catacombs, founded by the death of a trillion drones, the floor filled with Reaper tech and Dragon's Bones...it was not cold in the tunnels, but she still shivered.

They passed by a wall with a carved shelf - several skulls were neatly arranged on top of each other, likely the collection amassed by some misfortunate archaeologists who had made the mistake of coming here. The empty eye sockets drilled holes into her, making her quicken her pace as safely as she could.

Finally, the dig site tapered off and the walls began to close in again. A few more steps took them to a split passageway - four opened tunnel maws within the labyrinth split off, all seemingly identical but for one feature. The farthest right tunnel barely glowed blue at all, signaling a distinct lack of eezo.

"Well," Garrus spoke. "We probably want to take one of the three brighter passageways."

"Are there any markings above the tunnels, maybe some signs by the archaeologists?" Tali asked. Picking blindly seemed daunting.

Garrus strained his eyes in the dark, but only saw the faintest indentations. "There might be some Ulanui, but unless you've learned how to speak it..."

"I'll leave that to our guide," she replied. "If he's even still alive." While it had been a reassuring sign to find his torch alone, the odds of him surviving the lurking ground was probably low.

"We could look for him," Garrus suggested. "Maybe he's still passed out back there, hiding in the dark."

Tali shook her head. "Even if it was, we'd probably kill ourselves trying to find him - that place goes on forever."

Garrus strained, trying to think of anyway they could improve their chances in picking the right path. "We could split up - gives us better odds."

Tali shook her head. "There's no guarantee any of these will lead to the refinery - and if one of us gets snagged by a bone prison again, we've got better odds together."

Garrus was about to concede the argument when he heard the faintest of sounds. "Do you hear that?"

"No, I don't - wait." She strained her ear and heard a weak cry. "Sounds like it's coming from the eezo-less tunnel."

"Is it a voice or...?" Garrus trailed off.

She took a few steps closer to the dark tunnel. "Sounds...filtrated, like it's coming from a suit. There's an edge to it. But I can't make out the words."

"That might be our guide," he suggested. "We can always trail back if it's nothing."

"Unless the cavern falls on us again," she added grimly.

"If it's our guide, it's worth the risk - the odds of him picking the right way are _much_ higher than ours."

"And if it's something else and kills us..."

"Wasn't worth the risk then," he quipped. "But, unless you've got a better suggestion...?"

Tali shook her head. "No, not really - I pretty much hate everything about this."

"Sounds great then," he replied, following her into the darkest tunnel.

They continued searching with their scanners - anomalies still kept popping up, and without eezo to help them, they needed at least some light to walk. For such a wide space, they felt oddly cramped - dodging the pings on their scanner pushed them uncomfortably close to the walls. Whenever two pings occurred at the same time, it felt like there was no right answer. Regular walking had turned into a constant leap of faith.

As they made their way through the catacombs, the cry was growing louder - Tali was almost sure she could make out the word "me," but the rest was scrambled. The filtration sound had intensified though - whoever was calling, they were definitely quarian.

She wanted to call out to whoever it was, but Garrus was afraid it was a hostile. "If it's an enemy, we can't afford to alert it to our presence." Tali agreed, but whatever was making the person cry out in agony over and over had to be terrible - if she was sprawled onto the catacomb floor, she would want someone to let her know they were coming before she went mad.

They kept marching on, walking by the repetitive, lifeless walls. The tediousness of the task still overwhelmed Tali, even after she had learned the grim truth about its "masons." If she began at the start of the network and attempted to traverse the entire thing, she'd likely die before getting halfway.

That probably didn't help their chances of getting out.

The voice was coming in clearer now - she was just on the verge of assembling the sentence when Garrus put a hand on her shoulder.

"I heard it," he said. "Someone-"

His explanation was halted by a particularly agonized cry, its loud volume ringing quite clearly. _"Help me, they broke my face."_

Garrus drew his Carnifex. "Someone attacked him. We have to be ready." Tali nodded grimly, readying her Wraith.

The screaming quarian was clearly male, and the extent of his problems had clearly left him ill - over and over, he repeated his cry. It became unnerving as they approached him, unable to silence the ruinous echoes.

Finally, they came across a clearing - the voice had lead them to another archaeological dig. Trapped in a prison of living bone sat their guide. As they approached his voice had grown more soft, as if he'd finally tired, eliciting only the weakest of_ "help me"_s.

Tali looked at the ground next to the wounded quarian and saw a pile of shattered glass. His visor had been broken apart. "Careful," she told Garrus. "He's likely delirious."

She crept to the suffering man. "I'm here to help, stay still."

He answered quickly, but it did little to comfort her. "Help me, they broke my face."

"I have plenty of antibiotics," she tried to assure him. While it was grim to break a mask in a foreign environment unlike Rannoch, it was not a universal death sentence.

"Help me, they broke my face."

Tali took the butt of her shotgun and went break the bones that had sunk into his suit, but the quarian seemed to resist. "No, you can't do that," he stammered in fear, finally voicing new words.

"It's going to hurt but if I don't -" Tali stopped mid-sentence as the guide shot up, allowing the bone to rend his leg to shredded flesh. The destruction of his tendons seemed to slow the male quarian down little, and he bared his exposed face to Tali, revealing the blue etched Reaper tech that outlined his features.

**"Look what they did to my face!"** he yelled, leaning over and ripping off the golden metal that adorned her neck. She tried to resist but the guide overpowered her, his thin and malnourished arms possessing an unnatural strength. Unable to stop the quarian husk, Tali screamed as the monster sunk its teeth deep within her throat.


	8. Chapter 8

Garrus lined up his pistol, but he'd been too slow - the quarian husk shifted its head too closely to Tali to risk a shot. He was on the verge of pulling the Carnifex's trigger when it lunged, burying its mouth around Tali's exposed neck. The beast was ravaging her throat and in mere seconds he'd reach the all important spinal cord, severing her head.

Garrus steadied the pistol as much as he could, knowing the risk he was about to take. He was as likely to kill her as save her, but if he didn't take this shot, she was good as dead anyway.

A loud _bang_ echoed throughout the tunnels as the bullet sailed through the air. In horror, Garrus instinctually realized he'd fired crooked - the bullet was racing toward the female quarian's helmet. There was no chance he could do anything in the brief moment that -

The monster pushed Tali down, wanting a more vulnerable position to infect and devour his captive. In the split second of movement, its head moved just within the slug's trajectory. The explosive round detonated in the creature's cranium, spewing the organic and synthetic hybrid of skull and brains across the ancient tunnel floor. The remnant of the creature's remaining jaw buried itself into Tali's neck, the last gasp of a dead nervous system.

Garrus raced over to the wounded quarian, only barely remembering to dodge the Dragon's Bone. He dragged the quarian away from the trap, not wanting her to be ensnared - it was hard to judge how much reach and control the ancient fossils had. His gut told him to take the butt of Tali's shotgun and shatter the bone prison to pieces, but his companion was likely in critical condition. It would have to wait until she stabilized.

He dropped to his knees and, as delicately as he could, pried off the teeth and gums that had latched onto her. She howled in pain as he removed the last trace of the husk and Garrus exclaimed a loud _"Oh shit."_

"What's wrong?" Tali asked, her voice ragged from pain. "Is it that bad?"

The husk's bite had tore up a fair amount of skin but the damage had been less severe than he expected. Yet still, where the monster's teeth had left their indentations...the telltale sign of infection glowed blue.

Garrus angled his omni-tooled arm toward her neck. "_Don't_ move."

Tali briefly saw the dim, orange light from his wrist grow brighter. It faded from her periphery before returning as flashing pain in her neck. She tensed at the burn before giving way to the shock of her nerves, allowing the world around her to go black.

* * *

She hated walking on sand - it crunched and stiffened against her bare toes, shifting in rebellion against her. Tali appreciated the freedom of air against her skin, but the grey granules would always embed themselves into her clothes, eyes, and hair. Whenever she shook her neck, tiny bits of eroded stone fell from her head like ancient dandruff.

Sometime before, she had made the mistake of lying down. But at least the sea was beautiful tonight - the black waters gleamed against the radiating glow of the eclipse. It was so inviting compared to the tiresome beach.

She plunged in, not wanting to spend another moment against the dreadful sand. The water was thick and pungent, smelling like the older engines she'd worked on aboard the flotilla. Tali felt invigorated with each breath - something in the fuel was powering her, enabling her muscles like never before. Instead of swimming she allowed herself to sink to the ocean floor.

She panicked briefly before realizing she was no longer a creature of air - water was providing all the sustenance she needed. Moving against the waves became zen to her as she pierced the currents like sky; there was no resistance remaining but the cool chill of the fluid's temperature. She shivered briefly and tried to find some source of warmth.

Until she looked, Tali hadn't realized she'd been unable to see. The water had been moving for her, guiding just like it had pumped the air through her veins. She squinted and the water leaked into her tear ducts. It burned like fire and she tried to scream, only taking on more ocean with each gasp. She felt herself expanding and swelling, the water pushing her flesh outwards.

She dropped to her knees and pounded against the ocean floor with her fists. _Suit,_ she screamed to herself. _Suit!_ She dug into the sand with her palms and tried to unearth it - somehow, she knew it was there, trapped between crust and the damned water. A piece of black and grey fabric began to poke out of the floor when she felt her back and shoulders crack, pulling apart widely. Oddly, it didn't hurt - it was actually quite pleasurable, with each rearrangement of bone releasing a wave of endorphins.

Her conscious was uneasy about what was happening, but maybe this new form would have its advantages. She had already become enhanced enough to swim underwater. Perhaps it could cure her immune system, mutate her into something more beautiful.

_Shepard,_ Tali reminded herself. _You want to find Shepard._ She moved her palms back over the wet sand but struggled to use them properly - they were like two inflated balloons, limp and without weight. Each pass at the ground barely made the slightest impact.

_Suit,_ Tali repeated to herself._ I need my suit._ It was hard to focus on anything but the alluring stream of feelings - anything more complex got buried under a rush of ecstasy. She focused on her most basic projections, images herself as she was on Rannoch, clothed and secure.

The black and grey fabric flew out of the granules and wrapped itself around her. Her bones and ligaments popped back into place, returning her natural form and compressing the swelling within its narrow constraints. The sense of mental arousal had vanished amidst a swarm of discomfort, and with it came an alarming sense of dread. _There's something wrong with this place,_ Tali realized.

Free of the insidious water, she squinted again - she was wearing her more protective armor, narrowing the world into two tiny slits. Past the darkness and through the telescope of her mask, she was still blind.

_Light,_ she thought urgently. Illumination was revealed to her as a bright source beamed from within Tali, leaking out onto the ocean floor. The mask swallowed up most of the light, but the two cracks from the plate metal guarding her face was enough to see by.

Tali was worried she would blind herself, but as it came from her, she could see past the light. For the first time, she realized she was not alone - schools of fish swarmed together, paddling fins against dense oil. Their flesh was translucent like the Ulanui, but their organs were different - the creatures' had gears and pistons that kept them afloat. Their parts labored against each other, bright sparks of friction glowing faintly blue in the dark.

The fish unnerved Tali; she shook her arms against the current, hoping to drive the animals away. They seemed not to notice her and continued on, cogs and bolts powering them on to their next destination._ Fire,_ a small, still voice reminded Tali._ You're cold._

She reached out and grabbed two of the fish, rubbing them together. Their thin skin wore away and their metal innards grinded against each other, unleashing a shower of sparks. The creatures burst into green flame and suddenly the whole school of fish was burning, the ocean evaporating away around the inferno.

A stronger warmth radiated from behind her - she tried to turn her head back, but her eyes screamed in pain. The eclipse had grown angry at her actions and erupted, sinking the world back into darkness. The fishes' light fell into ash and the intelligence of the foreign presence was now unmistakable.

The eclipse pulsed as the thought _**rest**_ overwhelmed her. Tali shook her head against the water fervently, cutting her way past the underwater waves illuminated by her visor. With each stroke, the intrusion became more pronounced. At times it seemed to be a whisper, but even the quietest sound would echo.

She did her best to ignore the demands of the presence and concentrated on defying the ocean's physics. With enough focus, she could race through the water faster than she could walk on land. If she could resist the exhaustion of her will...

The command _**rest**_ escaped the realm of suggestion and sundered the ground, shaking the sea floor as it reverberated amongst the waves. She cracked the bones in her arms slightly and swam upward, away from the growing crevice in the crust; it was effortless, escaping the tethers of land.

Yet the eclipse behind her grew everblinding - its heat began to drain the oceans themselves, eating away at their safety. Tali felt her waist sink nearer to the planet's gaping jaws, coming dangerously close to being swallowed up. The chasm below was without ocean, a vast pocket of air within the deep - if she fell from water, nothing would stop her from being crushed within.

A loud whooshing noise escaped the abyss and the water drained away into nothingness, leaving Tali with air. She plummeted into the pit below, falling just within -

* * *

Tali jerked awake, her shoulders rising off the Ulanui tunnel. The rapid movement sent a stinging pain throughout her body and she had to bite her tongue to prevent from yelling. The smell of cooked meat made its way past her filters and tormented her growling stomach. She blinked twice, still groggy, and talked to the blurry form of Garrus. "Where did you find food?"

Garrus hesitated before answering. "...That's you, Tali."

She put a hand to her neck and realized it'd been burned - it was still and coarse against the movement of her fingers. "I don't remember...how did...?"

Garrus cut her off. "I did it. It was the only way to prevent Spores."

"Spores?" Tali asked, while fumbling through some pockets - she was still in pain and whatever medicine Garrus had used wasn't helping. She opened a tiny compartment on her suit where she stored various treatment kits.

Garrus leaned over and forced her hands down. "No medi-gel. You're going to recover, but if you use that gel..."

Tali paused, trying to remember what happened. She turned her head slightly past Garrus and noticed the corpse of the tour guide. "Ancestors," Tali exclaimed. "That thing bit me."

The turian nodded. "Most quarians who get infected or trapped in Dragon's Teeth turn into normal husks. But the ones with unusually strong immune systems? They become Carriers, walking biohazards. Reaper tech replaces their stomach with a pit of acid and contagions.

"The Spores virus dies if it hits the air, but if their saliva gets into you...quarians have weak enough constitutions to be changed by germs alone."

"But _I_ was bit," Tali replied, suddenly frightened. "Am I going to...?"

Garrus shook his head. "No. Spores is easy to treat, it's only a problem if you don't know..." He winced and trailed off. "We burnt it out in time. You may feel watched or hear sounds, but that's just a chemical hallucinogen. Permanent brain reconstitution takes at least an hour, and you were only under for forty minutes."

_"Brain reconstitution?"_ Tali asked incredulously.

"I know it's a lot to take in," Garrus conceded. "But you're going to be fine. The virus is still in your blood, but the initial exposure was removed. Without it, the spores can't come back and whatever's left will burn out within a day."

Tali looked down at her arms and imagined the monster's disease traveling through her veins. Despite his reassurances, it still wasn't a comforting thought - the banshees of the monastery had always disturbed her. Given her current predicament, she couldn't help but think of Rita and how they'd been forced to leave her to die.

"How can you act like it's no big deal?" Tali demanded. "I was attacked by a _plague monster._ You can't _know_ I'll be fine."

Garrus fought back a sigh - he was just as worried as she was, but he had a duty to pretend otherwise. "Getting upset makes it worse - adrenaline keeps it moving through your blood."

Tali, of course, immediately began to panic. "Why did you tell me that? I won't be able to stop thinking about it!"

"Because you asked me - look, that doesn't matter. What does matter is as long as you avoid using medi-gel, the virus _will_ die."

"We didn't see one quarian husk in the entire war," Tali protested. "How did you learn all of this?"

"There was an experiment," Garrus explained, stretching his legs out - if he was going talk about this, they were in for a long ride. "One of Admiral Xen's pre-war obsessions was researching geth control. Her science teams failed to manipulate anything more intelligent than a toaster, but the admiral thought their work showed promise.

"Once Rannoch was reclaimed, her priorities changed - they had a new, much larger AI problem to deal with. Xen moved her scientists onto fresh projects, attempts to reapply what they had learned about synthetic minds against the Reapers.

"A pair of her top researchers were convinced they could control the simpler brains of husks - instead of a blindingly complex neural network, they would be dealing with animalistic impulses. Excitement spread amongst the camp's true believers about their failed methods suddenly having new viability.

"But there was a problem - moving dead limbs was only going to teach them so much. They needed live subjects, fresh and working Reaper brains. So with Xen's blessing, a small team moved to Renstaan, one of the quarians' new settlements on Haestrom. The remote village was quiet and small enough to be above anyone's notice, but close enough to civilization that they could 'resupply' on subjects from time to time.

"At first, the initial husks that had been captured for research satisfied their curiosity. They achieved a small level of control, moving limbs against the creatures' will. But it all went to hell once they got results - for a few brief moments, they were able to systematically control a Reaper brain.

"Suddenly, they were on the precipice of rewiring Reaper shock troops. You could hear the awe in their logs - they lost sight of the project as mere science. This was the new hope, their glorious contribution to organic life. Inspiration, madness, or even indoctrination got to them - they had to accelerate the speed of research.

"People started going missing in the settlement - the scientists started with colonists who had fallen on hard times, those too poor and inconsequential to be noticed. Once they ran out of homeless, they started taking young kids.

"At first, a few parents believed that their children had merely run away. But the scientists took too many and it morphed from a search party to an investigation. Once the townsfolk were beating down their door, the scientists knew the parameters had changed. They armed themselves and killed the investigators.

"From there, they seized the whole town - between threatening the kidnapped children and heavy weapons, the settlers were all but too easy to put down. A few tried to resist with their Predators but they weren't trained soldiers. Once the civilians realized the science team was more than willing to kill, it routed their morale. They waited vainly for someone to respond to their comm, but help never arrived."

Tali couldn't believe her ears. "No one helped them? They just let all those people die?"

Garrus shook his head softly. "This was during the War. A tiny village broadcasting for help got lost in a sea of cries. And once the scientists took control, they sent a message disavowing any problem before smashing all transmission equipment to bits. Their 'precious' research was too important to risk."

Tali clenched her fists in anger. "I can't...our own people did that to each other? On Admiral Xen's _orders?_"

"I have my suspicions," Garrus replied. "But nothing proves she had any direct involvement. All they ever came across was a vid suggesting they need to work faster."

Tali understood what he was getting at - the admiral had borrowed a page from the Illusive Man's book. Many of the Cerberus projects that went awry had never been instructed to do anything wrong. Instead, the higher ups simply threatened to revoke jobs or funding, allowing their employees to find their own creative solutions in unethical research.

Garrus' throat felt parched from going on at such length and he instinctively looked for a source of water before remembering they were still trapped in the tunnels of Ahlgruve. He swallowed some air vainly and did his best to be succinct.

"After their victory, the research team moved the settlers into enclosed pens. The land had been used for livestock before and light drifted between the spaced roof tiles, connecting the civilians to the elements. Between exposure and how rare feedings they were, the team had no trouble in corralling them. Anyone who tried to resist or organize a protest was the first to be 'volunteered' for a public husk transformation.

"Now that they had the settlers under their control, the team had more stock than they knew what to do with. Originally they'd kept their husks safety stored in stasis units. But they'd never dreamed of having so many samples - they couldn't contain all the Reaper troops they were producing.

"They took some of the more handy settlers and had them adapt an old metal building, barricading the windows and doors. They threw some husks in there and used colonists as bait, seeing if the creatures could escape. After a few tries they managed to lockdown the building and had fashioned a proper husk prison.

"For awhile, everything was falling perfectly into plan for the scientists. Their research was progressing smoothly and Renstaad's civilians were too traumatized to fight back. It wasn't until they produced their first Carrier that something went wrong.

"The scientists didn't realize the significance of their new abomination - superficially, Carriers resemble other quarian husks. If you didn't know about the acid digestion that withers away their body, you'd think it simply looked like the original subject was malnourished. They examined a set of unusual brain scans from the creature and then placed it with the other Reapers in their special enclosure.

"Carriers are sort of like Thorian thralls - they can vomit their acid on command. Although it wasn't able to beat its way through the metal, it managed to burn through it. A few hours of corrosion weakened the structure enough that the husks could tear their way out.

"Quarian husks are special in that they'll actually die if left to their own devices - they keep more of their organic parts than other races and need sustenance to keep their body from rejecting the Reaper influence. They have senses of smell and hunger and will go after organic life voraciously, risking likely death to feed.

"Following the science team's scent, they eventually found the pens. They pulled at the wire and metal paneling, pounding their bodies and fists against the obstructions. Between the slamming sounds and the low moans of hunger from the husks, the scientists realized the pens were under siege.

"I remember it even now, their logs - they expressed so much regret and remorse over killing them. They spoke of the husks like their children. When one of their number was taken out by a spray of Carrier acid, they seemed almost jealous of how he was the one to discover the 'adaptation.'

"With shots to the creature's legs, they managed to subdue the Carrier and research its acid. Testing it on civilians, they soon discovered that small amounts of fluid caused spores to grow on the skin. They ran it through a battery of tests, examining every weakness and permutation of the infection.

"Ultimately, they came up with the guidelines that I used to stop it from turning you. But by this point, they had changed as much as their subjects - their final logs began to descend into madness. The strings of words were barely comprehensible - all we really know is that the scientists went from trying to learn how to stop the infection to breeding an even stronger strain...and using it on themselves."

Tali ran her hand down over the prominent burn on her neck. Even after being attacked by a husk herself, it was hard to believe it really happened. "I can't...this is...unspeakable," she murmured, struggling to contextualize the reality of Garrus' story.

Garrus knew the feeling - he'd seen the destruction firsthand and still hesitated to believe it. "We were never supposed to go there - we were only patrolling the Veil because we were in the area for your wedding. Once Traynor found the old comm broadcasts, we decided to investigate.

"The husks were dead by the time we got there - the Crucible had wiped them out. We went through the ruins and unearthed the logs, forwarding them to the Council and Admiralty Board. That was the end of it, really."

The phrase "Admiralty Board" stirred Tali's memory. While she had been on extended leave to deal with Reaper forces and personal matters, she was still technically an admiral. "Why wasn't I told about this before?"

"Didn't think it was the most blissful topic for wedding chatter," he replied. "And after seemed like a pretty bad time too. When it comes to darkening a mood, genetic mutilation of your species is pretty high on the list."

"Right," Tali intoned. While she appreciated Garrus' sense of humor, jokes about of the monster she'd almost become were hardly appealing.

Now that her mind was no longer preoccupied by the grim story, hunger and a sense of dread re-emerged. The tunnels weren't going to magically teleport them to the exit. "We should get going."

"Yeah," Garrus breathed. He'd been thinking the same thing - while it had been "nice" to focus on something else, escaping the catacombs couldn't be put off any longer. He was tired of the dark halls and the faint blue glow of the other tunnels.

Tali turned her attention to the disgusting corpse. "Did you find anything useful on the guide?"

It was a long shot, but she couldn't think of another source of information - the ancient scrawl engraved into the walls wasn't going to lead them out of here.

"His omni-tool's encrypted," Garrus replied. "Couldn't get in."

Tali crept to the husk's remains and reluctantly tapped one of its arms. The guide's omni-tool lit up and she tried to search its data. "It's only password protected," she remarked, punching in some letters.

"Well, yeah, but we don't know the password."

Tali didn't reply, re-entering the word she'd typed in. It had denied her access, but there were only so many ways you could likely spell it. _U-l-a-n-u-i,_ she thought, trying that form.

A ding echoed through the halls and she turned the displayed password towards Garrus.

He squinted and realized what the encryption had been. "I would have thought of that eventually," he chirped.

"Mhm," Tali replied, now focusing on copying data instead of tormenting the turian further. From her own omni-tool, she pulled up an immense map. The blue display was lined with complex paths, twisting and turning into each other.

Garrus squinted, trying make out details in the labyrinth of data. "I_ think_ we're at this point here, where the four tunnels stem from what's labelled as the 'Western Mouth of Ahlgruve.'"

Tali swiped her tool, showcasing different segments of the map. "I don't see another four way split anywhere else," she said, trying to hold back her excitement until she was absolutely sure they finally had some guidance. "I think you're right, all we have to do now is- oh no."

Garrus' face fell at her words. "What's wrong?"

Tali zoomed over to the Western Refinery on the map. "Look how far away it is," she said, zooming out on the display. The tunnel connecting their passageway to the plant ran through miles of dirt. "We'll never make it by foot."

"Look for another exit?" Garrus suggested, his voice filled with urgency. They had come too close to give up now - there had to be _something_ in the guide's data that could help them.

"I don't see...wait." She pulled up a section of the map with three little triangles on it. "According to the key, this should be a train."

"A still working one?" Garrus asked. It was unlikely, but he didn't want to walk all that way to find the ancient ruins of a bug-railing.

"Yes, a modern one - it's directly connected to the refinery."

Garrus tried to memorize the exact pathway they'd need to take - it was best if they only used their omni-tools sparsely. "Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get the hell out of here."

* * *

Knowing where they were going didn't make the tunnels any more pleasant - their legs were beginning to feel stiff and unresponsive. The walking was beginning to take a toll beyond mere physicality as well. Tali swore she could see_ things_ out of the corner of her eye, lurking in the faint blue shadows of the deeper catacombs.

Whether it was the remaining effects of the creature's poison or simple paranoia, she didn't know. The faint half-sounds that lingered in her ears were almost certainly brought on by the intrusive drugs - the civilization that had founded these halls was long dead. Yet their craftsmanship retained their aura. The tunnels _knew_ she had come, that they'd violated this sacred place.

As they approached the train station, the walls were beginning to turn more luminescent. She was hardly an expert on eezo, but Tali wondered if the density or quality increased as they came closer to the refinery. It was hardly an illuminated path, but the extra light put her slightly at ease - although the history of the tunnels themselves disgusted her, it was gentler than what her imagination created in the dark.

They wandered down one last stretch of dirt, a straight shot that ended in a sudden left turn. Usually the Ulanui curved their architecture, but this cavern was meant to be unique. On the final stretch of wall before the turn that would lead them to the train, there was the disfigured remains of some expression. It had been ruined by time or invaders, but elements of shape could be guessed at in between the instruction.

Underneath was the largest scrawl of Ulanui they'd come across - it was still nonsense to them, but it was at least legible in its foreign nature. "Creepy," Tali whispered, wondering what could have been so important to have received structural and even artistic reverence from the bug people.

"Even more reason to leave," Garrus quipped. Although he disguised it in humor, he was starting to feel a wave of dread as well. Anxiety begged him to leave this place - he couldn't shake a feeling of doom, that there'd be repercussions for coming here.

They took off into the last hall. Immediately, one difference was clear to them - bones littered the floor. Loose ribs and calcium fragments covered the ground next to the tunnel's walls. They inched away from the remains and kept walking in the center of the catacomb's path.

As they continued, they came onto more recent intrusions. A wire had been hung and bound into the walls with metal loops, carrying a current. Dim lanterns hung from it, allowing a more complete sense of vision.

"We must be close," Garrus whispered, more trying to reassure himself than convince Tali. She nodded but didn't reply - it was easier to focus on the path than continue talking.

Her patience was rewarded with a rail of metal that had been embedded into the floor. Their hearts raced as they realized they'd almost arrived to their salvation. They broke out into a trot and saw in the distance the shape of a sort of cab, resting on the tracks.

"That's it!" Garrus exclaimed, rushing to the vehicle. After Tali caught up to him, he eagerly barged his way into the cab. Once he entered, he realized it consisted of multiple compartments - they were in the back, where the passengers waited to reach their destination. There were soft benches and spartan windows that'd been left open. Garrus fiddled with a few of them to see if they'd close, but they were stuck in place.

He made his way to middle compartment, passing a thick metal door. It appeared to be a storage room - pickaxes, scanners, and various other mining equipment were stocked on several shelves. On the floor there was a small crate with various white, plastic tubes hanging over its sides.

"Nutrient paste!" Tali exclaimed, grabbing a package and processing it through her suit.

"Oh wow, I'm so glad we finally went to a planet with dextros for once," Garrus groaned as he scarfed down a packet of paste. It was soft, lukewarm, and had a miserable oatmeal texture, but food was food - given his hunger, it was the best slop he'd ever eaten.

As they snatched the pre-packaged paste, the crate moved slightly, revealing a few bottles of water pressed against the compartment wall. They quickly slammed the fluid down - soothing their parched throats felt like an even bigger blessing than the paste.

After the water was gone and his stomach full with as much paste as he could take, Garrus' brain returned to situation at hand. "Well," he said, looking at the final compartment door. "We'd better see if we can get this thing moving."

They went into the last room, a tiny space for the conductor. The train had a wide window in the front - from this view, he could see a disconnected caboose filled with chunks of solid eezo, resting just off of the tracks. They were just going to barely be able to scrape by it, which was fortunate - they'd likely be unable to move an entire cab full of mined Element Zero.

Inside the train's front, there was a tiny haptic interface that connected to some unfamiliar machine, likely a generator. It glowed bright orange and green, colors Garrus barely remembered. He attempted to fiddle with it briefly before conceding the right of way to the expert. "It's all yours."

Tali spent a few seconds looking at the controls before recognizing the standard protocols of the Flotilla. She pressed a bright green dot in the center three times and the train's engine revved. Garrus lurched as the train suddenly sped forward, moving rapidly across the metal tracks.

"Now that's more like it," he exclaimed, watching the tunnels fly past them. At this rate, they'd get out of this hellhole before they knew it.

"All systems are stable," Tali informed him. "The mining team kept this in good condition."

"As long as it runs," Garrus replied, thinking of the long bath he was going take back home. His skin was beginning to smell more like a garbage dump than anything civilized.

"You sure you don't want to...see if it's calibrated?" Tali asked, softly giggling at her own humor.

Garrus groaned. "I mean, it was funny once, but how many times have you told that joke?"

"Clearly not enough," she teased, happily amused by his grimace.

They moved away from the front of the train, allowing it to automate itself down the tracks. Tali would periodically check on the systems, ensuring the engine wasn't about to overheat or run out of power. But between responsibility, they kicked back in the passenger compartment and relaxed. The cheap fabric covering the seats felt like the most exotic luxury after traversing the tunnels. Tali melted into the seat, allowing her sore legs and lower back a chance to heal.

Garrus wasn't as fortunate - while the seats plush covers were nice, he couldn't exactly feel it through his armor. "I need to dress lighter," he complained, envious of Tali's relaxed demeanour.

"This is about as light as I can regularly dress," Tali quipped. "But you'll be able to take that off when you get back on the Normandy."

"Yeah, yeah," he replied. "Enjoy the cushions."

"Oh, I will," she remarked, intentionally swaying her legs against the fabric. "They're just great."

Garrus went to make a smart ass comment but the train suddenly went dark. The vehicle kept moving, but the light provided by the lantern wire had disappeared - the cord had been stripped from the walls here, severed from the electrical source.

"What's wrong?" Tali asked, suddenly jolting up from her prone position.

Garrus squinted again in the blue washed darkness. "It looks like someone ripped the wires down..."

"Ripped them off?" Tali asked, before falling to the ground. The train made a violent stop and caused them both to stumble.

"What in the hell?" Garrus exclaimed, taken aback by the sudden change in motion. He rushed to pick Tali off the floor and the pair walked into the front of the train.

Tali ran her palms over the haptic interface before quietly remarking that there was nothing wrong. Garrus looked out of the front of the train's window, but without the lantern light, he could barely see anything. He thought about blasting the brightness of his omni-tool for a moment, but relented when he saw how low the battery was.

"Wait here," he told her. "I'm going to see if we hit something." Garrus made his way to the passenger's cab and exited the only door of the train. His feet hit the tunnel floor and he softly crept his way over the tracks.

In the front of the vehicle was a cache of Dragon's Bones, about seven or eight just resting in between the tracks. Several of them had been run over by the train and got caught in its undercarriage, jamming its locomotion. Garrus took his sniper rifle, an N7 Valiant that Shepard had given him, and smashed one of the fossils to bits.

Realizing he might get run over once when he freed the train, he called out to Tali. "Kill the engine," he yelled, before turning back to the Dragon's Bones. One of the living piles had stretched itself all the way out, laying its bones toward the quarian in the train. Even with a wall of sheer metal in the way, the fossil couldn't resist its desire for her.

He wondered grimly if that meant she had an unusually strong immune system as he pulverized the offending bones to bits, using his sniper rifle as a club. With a few more swings, the rest of the Dragon's Bones fell away and the path was cleared. For good measure, he shoved the thin end of the gun underneath the train, moving any straggling obstructions out.

"All right," Garrus remarked. "I'm coming on board." He walked toward the vehicles door, kicking a stray bone out of his path. As he entered, Garrus grabbed onto a metal bar that was affixed onto the train for safety. It was all that kept him off the ground as the sensation of being pulled took him.

His head bolted to the side as he heard it groan._ "Murrrh,"_ the husk breathed, still trying to rip the turian's leg off. He tried to get free but the damn thing's grip was a vice.

"Start the engines!" Garrus screamed. The vehicle started moving down the tracks and the rapid speed took the husk by surprise, tossing it into the tunnel ground below as the turian clung for dear life. As they pulled away from the monster, he saw that beneath the train had been several run over quarians, still vainly trying to reach out to the speeding vehicle.

The train started to move faster and Garrus saw that the bones that had been piling on the floor were now embedded into the walls. They looked like giant tusks, oddly protruding out of the tunnels. Most of them were too far away to hit the vehicle, but at one point, he had to arch his back to prevent from getting harpooned.

The train slowed for a moment to take a curve and Garrus seized his chance, rolling his body into the compartment. He crashed into one of the seats, slightly moaning as the small of his back hit metal.

"Garrus?" Tali called out. "What happened?"

"Husks," Garrus explained. "Lots of husks."

No sooner than the word had escaped his mouth, they came across another gathering of the creatures. A group of them stood in the middle of the tracks and to the side, blissfully unaware of basic physics. The train made a horrible crunching sound as it stalled out, jamming against the creature's bits.

"Oh fuck," Garrus exclaimed - even in the dark, he could see the outline of husks climbing onto the cab, mounting the vehicle with their arms through the window. And even without visual confirmation, the faint moans of hunger let him know what was about to happen.

Tali flickered through a dozen options on the train's interface, trying to find _something_ that would help. She pressed an obscure option that allowed "unconventional options."

A friendly voice echoed throughout the conductor's cabin. "Are you sure you want to disable all safety features?"

"Yes!" Tali screamed at the machine, having heard the oncoming husks herself.

"Are you_ really_ sure you want to disable all safety features? Ahlgruve Mining Corporation can't be held fiscally responsible in the event of severe injury, such as broken limbs, dislocated shoulders, or even death."

"Yes, bosh'tet, yes, disable the safety features!" she exclaimed, almost pounding her fists at the stupid machine.

"Safety features disabled," came the annoying voice over and the haptic interface turned a bright orange. Tali went to try and override the engine shutdown, but a husk punched its way through the train's front window and wrapped an arm around her shoulders. She was faster this time and reached for her pistol, draining slugs into the creature's skull. It fell back and onto the tracks, becoming the first husk crushed as Tali restarted the vehicle's engines.

Garrus in the back compartment flew into the train's rear, almost rolling out of a window. Despite the vehicle's speed, several of the husks had managed to hold on - only a few groaned in pain and remorse as they fell off the train and away from the delicious passengers.

The turian reached for his sniper rifle but realized it had fallen off his body when he rolled into the train. _Damn it,_ he thought to himself. _That was a level X._ He didn't have long to mourn the rare weaponry as a husk managed to pull its torso through a window. The creature had lost its legs somehow in the effort, perhaps by being torn off by a passing tusk.

Garrus took his boot and stomped the creature's head, filling the cabin with a terrible _crunch._ The hideous noise seemed to energize the husks still clinging to the train and several of them threw themselves into the cabin. He pulled out his pistol and shot several of them in the head before one got the better of him. It pushed Garrus onto the ground and twisted its own neck, signaling an oncoming wave of acid.

He watched as it spewed the caustic substance forward, only coming inches away from being burned to death as Tali pulled him away from the creature, dragging him by the arms. Garrus watched in horror as the beast's fluid ate through the train floor, revealing the track and tunnel below.

Tali took her pistol and aimed it at the creature, but was too slow - it jumped over the hole in the ground, dodging her shot. The husk stood dangerously near her ruined neck and seemed to be drawn to the barely healed infection. It tried to lunge as Garrus grabbed its leg, tripping it. The beast stumbled and Tali swung her shotgun into its face, hearing a loud crack as the bones within its head crumbled.

But the monster kept going despite the damage - its face sliding off its skull hardly slowed it down. It reached an arm towards the quarian and she pushed at its chest instinctively, before lowering a shotgun blast into its sternum. It staggered and leaned against a window, trying to pull itself back together.

Garrus got to his knees and essentially tackled the creature out the train, barely keeping himself in the cab. It flew out the moving vehicle and was gored by a large tusk, hanging inert off the ancient fossil.

Tali darted her head around the cabin, looking for any remaining intruders. She crept into the next two compartments, but found nothing. "I think that's the last of them," she remarked.

"Great," he intoned, lifting himself up and resting back down on a bench. He took a deep breath and tried to steady himself - he had not been prepared for _that._

"I'm going stay in the front and keep lookout for any more," Tali informed him. "Let me know if you see anything back here."

Garrus nodded, feeling his brain start to slip. They'd hardly stopped in their entire journey and the sudden exertion reminded him of his lack of rest.

"I'll make sure I keep an eye out," he remarked as he closed his lids, quickly falling asleep.

* * *

The train stopping jerked Garrus awake - the vehicle jarred him in place, shifting his momentum. He shot up and stared out the windows, looking for any husks that had interfered with the tracks again.

"Relax," Tali told him as she walked into the room. "We're here."

"Oh," Garrus responded, feeling a little embarrassed. "Thanks for keeping watch."

"It was no problem," she replied. "You looked a little tired anyway."

"Yeah," Garrus agreed. "We've been out here for what, days?"

"Feels like it," Tali remarked. "But really, we should get out of the train."

Garrus nodded and followed her out the vehicle door. He cringed a bit, smelling the faint odor of husk - bits of the things had clung to the bottom of the undercarriage. He turned his head from the side of the tunnel to the central chamber.

It was remarkably wide, even for Ahlgruve's tunnels - it looked like he could fit three Normandys in the space. Yet it was empty, even free of the bone characteristic of the train's path.

"It's so horrible," Tali exclaimed, shuddering at the display.

He went to ask what she was talking about, but he looked up - in the ceiling, a giant skeleton had been reassembled and embedded into the tunnel roof. The "tusks" Garrus had seen were the tips of ribs of the giant creature - everything about the fossil was unbelievably immense. Its massive skull looked large enough to swallow a dozen of him at once, although the tiny slit for a mouth would hardly take him in. He wondered if it would have nibbled him apart slowly, or if it could somehow swell and manage to suck him in.

While the creature's smaller bones were intricately interspersed across its few parts, it seemed unusually simple. The fossil lacked any appendages or parts beyond a head and abdomen.

"The map's key said this place was a royal burial ground," Tali explained, her voice taking on both characteristics of awe and horror. "This is the final chamber - they kept...that...up there as some kind of inspiration. The archaeologists think she might be the first queen."

"We should replace it with the last," Garrus muttered. He lowered his attention to the the large chamber's paths. "Which way are we supposed to go?"

"Straight," Tali said, pointing forward. "That'll take us directly to the refinery."

Their conversation trailed off and they made their way down the final tunnel. The blue light was soaring now - it shone with an almost intrusive light. They felt themselves walking just a little faster - they were so close now.

"Garrus, wait," Tali whispered, grabbing his shoulders and stopping him in his tracks. "Someone's using a comm here." She messed with the display of her omni-tool slightly and a gruff voice came over its speakers.

_"Did you handle the intruders?"_ a heavily processed voice asked. It sounded like he was speaking through a helmet.

_"Yes,"_ another male replied. _"We sent the archaeologists down the tracks. That'll deal with it."_

_"Good,"_ the first male answered. _"Report that to Manta."_

_"__**You**__ report that to Manta,"_ the second insisted.

_"I'm already working on accessing this eezo, remember?"_

The other voice paused. _"Fine, but you're doing it next time."_

The chatter ceased and Tali turned to Garrus. "Sounds like Cerberus," she remarked.

"Yeah," he agreed. "Wonder what 'Manta' is."

"One of their idiot leaders, I'm sure," she replied, slowing her pace slightly. Now that they knew the refinery had indeed been occupied by Cerberus, running out of the tunnel and making a lot of noise was a hazard.

Creeping along the hall was tedious - they were lurching over the precipice of the exit now. It felt as if they were crawling out of the tunnel, moving so slowly. But there was only so much land to cross, even under Ahlgruve - they saw the catacombs taper off and run into a huge chamber that had been mined out by more recent hands.

A large, black structure sat in the center of the room, billowing smoke from a chimney. The waste dispersed throughout the tunnels and created a sort of thin fog and thick, burnt odor. There were piles and piles of blue glowing rock - it rested in the walls, carelessly tossed on the ground, and piled up next to the refinery itself.

The structure had an unusually large amount of tunnel entries surrounding it - four of them, including their own, glowed brightly. But the one directly behind the refinery was pitch black, oddly lacking eezo - it had likely been mined out already, stripped of its resources.

According to the map, that path had a ladder leading to the surface that was relatively close by. But a brighter tunnel, on the opposite side of the dark one, had its own lift, used for carting resources out to the surface. It was a little farther down than the ladder, but still within easy reach.

The refinery had a catwalk around its outside - a trooper dressed in Cerberus white and yellow was guarding the building. He seemed not to really be paying attention to his job or surroundings - it was likely not often people were walking around, beneath Ahlgruve. Even with reports of intruders, he seemed not to able to shake old habits.

"Do you see anyone else?" Garrus asked, pointing toward the lazy trooper.

Tali squinted into the chamber. "No, why?"

Garrus pulled out his pistol, sighted the man's head, and pulled the trigger. The trooper didn't even have time to scream before slumping off the catwalk and falling onto the ground below.

Tali tensed as the bullet reverberated through the halls and waited for an onslaught of guards to show up. "Why did you do that?" she asked while slapping a hand against the turian's arm.

"You said there wasn't anyone else there," he replied, taking a few more steps to towards the refinery.

"I didn't really have time to look in detail," she insisted. "Besides, there might have been more of them inside the refinery."

"Huh," Garrus mouthed. "I didn't even think of that. Guess we really have been down here too long."

They paused for a few more moments, making sure they wouldn't be taken off guard by a group running out of the tunnels. When it was clear they were still alone, Garrus took his opportunity to gloat. "Well, that was easy."

Tali couldn't really disagree - it was unusual, but Cerberus had left the place almost completely undefended. "We should check his corpse," she said, pointing to the dead trooper. "Might have some information on where his friends went."

"Good idea," Garrus replied, walking towards the dead body. "You sneak into the refinery and see if there's anything in there." Tali nodded and went towards the direction of the building's entrance.

The turian made his way to the dead Cerberus trooper. He poked around its body, making sure it was dead - a little over cautious given the bullet in the man's head, but if you were going to be scrummaging around a corpse anyway...he tried to access the data on the guard's omni-tool, but of course, its main reserves were encrypted. He tried entering _C-e-r-b-e-r-u-s,_ but it was to no avail.

_Guess that trick only works for Tali,_ he mused, rifling around in the dead man's pockets.

A sudden gust of wind from the dark tunnel took him off guard. He shivered slightly at the sudden rush of cold and squinted into the dim, trying to make out what had happened. The perplexed turian risked draining his omni-tool's battery and had it shoot out a beam of light into the faded hall. He circled the wide tunnel as he quickly as he could with the beam, but came up empty handed.

_Maybe there's a train that way,_ he thought to himself. Something had been moving fast to cause a rush of wind down the tunnels. He dimmed his omni-tool and stared into the inky black, simply waiting for something to happen.

"Is someone there?" Garrus called out. It felt foolish to ask, but the turian was perturbed by the strange wind.

Something had heard him - a crimson jewel glinted in the shadows. Then its voice came, booming down the tunnels.

**"You cannot stop the ascension."**

The bright red laser illuminated the form of the Reaper as the fiery beam made its way to the turian. Garrus dived blindly, hoping to dodge certain death. A wave of uncomfortable heat crashed over the turian as the deadly ray sailed just above him and briefly broiled his insides.

He groaned as he scrambled to his feet, trying to block out the pain as he attempted to roll away from another blast, falling awkwardly. He began to drain the little energy left in his omni-tool and yelled into the comm. "Reaper in the tunnels!"

"I heard it," she frantically responded. Her eyes darted around the refinery's metallic confines and industrial piping, looking for the enemy. "How did husks make all that noise?"

"No, no," Garrus panted. "A _big_ Reaper."

Tali looked away from the plant's halls and turned to a window. She saw a glimpse of its form before recognizing the bright light - she dove to the floor, doing her best to dodge the dreadnought's wrath. The beam soared above her and tore through the eezo plant's walls, clipping and melting a large series of vats - in its wake, small bits of loose metal, tiling, and dust fell from the ceiling and onto Tali's form.

She shook the fallout of the blast off her prone body as adrenaline and shock began to overwhelm her. Part of Tali felt like it was another bad dream, the hallucinogen's last gasp - but the dreadnought's death ray had been real enough, providing the refinery with a gush of heat.

"Garrus," Tali frantically whispered into her comm. "I have an idea."

"Oh yeah?" Garrus asked, eyeing the Reaper. It had swung its direction from the plant and closer towards him. "I'm all ears."

"There's probably an element zero core to this refinery," she explained. "We could trigger an explosion and collapse the tunnels."

Garrus chose to ignore her caveat of "probably" - times like these called for optimism. "All right," Garrus replied. "How do we get out though?"

"The lift in the opposite tunnel is carved into the wall and reinforced with metal panelling - it'd probably take a few hits before caving in."

The amount of "probably" was starting to concern him, but he didn't exactly have a better suggestion. "That works. I'll get to the lift."

Tali's voice cut in. "No, I need you to distract him - if you leave, he'll fire on me again. I can't run and hack at the same time."

Garrus eyed the glowing jewel of the Reaper - it was on the eve of interrupting their conversation. He made a rapid turn and tossed his body into a pile of rocks. Another beam rushed past him and singed his skin - within the heavy metal suit, it was like being cooked alive.

He coughed dryly, as if he'd been pumped full of dust. "That's...a tall order."

"I need all my remaining omni-tool energy to hack into the core," she explained. "I'll message you once it's time to go."

"...All right," Garrus conceded as he looked at the towering form of his adversary. Although the tunnels were quite massive, he was still surprised it had been able to maneuver through the halls of Ahlgruve - a few of the catacombs' passages would occasionally tighten. The dreadnought itself had the shape of Sovereign, but was slightly wider - overall, the Reaper appeared slimmer, more agile in its movements. It floated as if gravity's pull was a foreign concept.

Another blast came and Garrus found himself careening into a tunnel wall. Rock collapsed on him and he almost went under as stones of eezo crashed onto his head. He tried to focus on Tali, knowing she'd die if he gave way against the planet's core. Experiencing shooting pain, he shot to his feet, a halo of blue rubble falling from his shoulders and to the ground.

The Reaper had turned its attention to the refinery - the machine's eye was powering up slowly. It seemed to have sacrificed some rate of fire in its superior speed.

Yet still, there was a good chance a bright lance through the refinery could take out the core...or Tali. "Hey," Garrus yelled, brandishing his pistol and shouting the first insult that came to mind. "Fight me, you cowardly piece of shit!"

**"Your enmity is beneath notice."**

The Reaper fired into the refinery, shooting a long beam into the center of the building. A series of catwalks that adorned the upper halls of the structure fell and crashed loudly onto the ground. Metal vats and piles of piping tipped over or oozed as molten steel onto the floor below.

"Tali!" Garrus screamed into his comm - he had watched in horror as the blast shook the plant to its core.

"Do something!" she fired back, busy with solving various locking algorithms. "This place isn't going to last much longer!"

Garrus stared down the form of the Reaper as he processed the insanity of his plan._ I can't believe I'm going to do this,_ he thought, pulling out his pistol once more. He bum rushed the dreadnought, draining slugs into the machine's bright eye. They made a loud burst of light and sound with each impact, but barely seemed to be noticed by the colossal figure.

He rushed closer, running directly into the dreadnought's proximity. A concussive shot flew out of his omni-tool and burst upon the machine's red jewel. He finally won the Reaper's attention - like a gnat landing on a mammoth, he had become an irritation. The machine spun in his direction, its eye charging menacingly.

As the space around him began to glow red, Garrus took a few steps back - he was unable to withstand the presence of an angry god. The laser that would turn his atoms to dust was on the precipice of exit when Tali's voice came over the comm.

"I've got it! Run!"

The Reaper seemed to have caught on to what they'd been planning - it turned rapidly and blasted into the refinery, taking one last shot at disrupting the core overload. Tali darted out of the building just as the supports caved and collapsed in on the pulsating eezo. The rubble above it shifted and shook in contact with the damaged core - it was too far gone to rest now.

Garrus did his best to escape, rushing toward the lift with every last bit of energy in his body. He sprinted like a madman away from the Reaper, beelining towards the lift. When he saw red out of the corner of his eye, he twisted his hips, performing a perfect roll away from the beam. But he had little time to celebrate his victory over turian physiology - the Reaper's shots were beginning to take a toll on the cavern, even with the carefully planned industrial construction. If he didn't hurry, he'd be buried before the core even had a chance to explode.

He managed to make his way to the lift, panting with every step - Tali was there waiting for him, her starting point having been closer to the exit.

"It's nice you waited for me," he quipped, leaning into the side of the lift. "Glad we had time to spare."

As the elevator began to ascend upward, Tali collapsed her fingers together. "Well...the core's disconnected from the mainframe now. It could explode at any moment."

"Oh," Garrus breathed, both horrified and yet somehow unsurprised. "Let's hope this thing's fast then."

The lift was industrial - speed was money to its constructors, and it shot to the surface like a rocket. Tali looked up in the tiny rock hallway, trying to ignore the occasional shaking caused by the Reaper's blasts. It occurred to her that the hatch above hadn't opened. "Garrus," she asked with trepidation. "Do you think that the opening is automated?"

He paused. "I have no idea." Garrus went to fiddle with his omni-tool but it was completely dead. Tali tried hers as well, but it too had died in the final moments of the refinery's collapse.

The turian squinted upwards. "Guess we'll find out."

They reached the surface just as the metal hatch flew open, filling their vision with bright light. The glare of the sun was overwhelming given their time underground and they strained their eyes in pain, unable to see. They stumbled forward across the sand blindly, trying to get away from the soon to be doomed catacombs.

"Oh my god," a familiar female voice exclaimed. "It's them!"

"Yes," the artificial intelligence replied. "They must have reached the refinery."

Tali's sunshocked eyes could barely make out the two figures and the white blob behind them, but she had clearly heard that it'd been their companions. "Reaper," she intoned, desperately trying to inform them of what lurked below.

"Reaper?" Kasumi asked in confusion. As her question lingered in the air, the ground below finally gave way - a loud_ boom_ overpowered their eardrums as Ahlgruve's crust collapsed on the ancient machine. The ground sunk inwards, piling tons of collapsed rubble on top of the dreadnought's form.

"Jesus!" Kasumi exclaimed, clapping her hands over her ears. "What the hell did you _do_ down there?"

"Get...in the car," Garrus managed, pointing toward the Hammerhead behind them.

"All right, all right," the thief conceded, entering the vehicle as the other three scrambled behind her. She made her way to the driver's seat and turned back to the turian. "Now what's this about -"

The ground began to spasm, a violent quake triggering from the catacomb's ruins. Ancient stone and dirt shifted as the false tomb for an ancient god was cleared - without seen actor, rubble was brushed aside and pushed away by an invisible hand. Lifted fragments of eezo rolled down a faint and transparent shell as white electric wreathed the air, jolting and coursing through the sky.

The Reaper's cloak dissipated as red light began to emanate from its jeweled eye.

Garrus screamed from the back. **"Go! GO!"**

"I can't drive this thing," Kasumi protested, fumbling out of the seat.

_"Then why did you -"_ Garrus cut himself off and rushed his way to the haptic interface in the front, knocking the thief into the back. He accelerated the Hammerhead and spun its position just as a beam blew past it - instantly, the whirling engines on its sides burst into flames. A loud alarm of _whoor, whoor, whoor_ looped inside the vehicle.

It was accompanied by the sound of a male virtual intelligence. "Threat detection, enemy unit nearby."

"Yes, I know that!" Garrus vented, hollering at the machine as he raced away from another. The Hammerhead was blazingly fast, but the Reaper was agile itself - even as they sped away down the sand dunes, it kept an alarmingly quick pace for such a large ship.

Shots of laser beams were coming faster now - firing so many in a row seemed to have decreased the charge time of each blast. Garrus found himself darting manically across the desert to avoid exploding the vehicle into ash. But even with his best efforts, the Hammerhead was in perpetual flames - it would cool down into smoke for an instant before being lit up by the warmth of an oncoming death ray.

EDI sat in the back rigidly as Tali and Kasumi rolled over like two logs dropped down a mountain - they kept flailing and bumping into the vehicle's metal sides with each panicked turn. Given the sheer amount of collisions, their legs and hips were going to be bruised to hell and back. But this time, neither of them decided to complain about the turian's driving.

His mind slightly less frantic, Garrus focused on both immediate escape of the Reaper and a more nuanced exit plan. "EDI," he called to the back. "Where's the Normandy?"

"At another nearby entry hatch," she answered. "Given that subterranean comms on Ahlgruve cannot travel past local transmissions, it was decided to split up our transportation units near the two most likely exit points."

"I see," he replied, gritting his teeth. "Can you send them our coordinates?"

"I have already taken the liberty of doing so, Captain."

Garrus nodded as a particularly close blast broke the lull of conversation - the engines' fires were starting to burn out of control and his haptic interface turned a bright red. "Further usage of vehicle will result in spontaneous explosion," the male VI warned.

"Wonderful," Garrus complained. "How long until overheat?"

"Uncertain," the VI replied. "It is advised you disengage vehicle unless you are facing an immediate emergency."

"I'll take that into consideration," Garrus replied, veering left and away from another laser blast. He throttled the Hammerhead's boiling engines, doing his best to race closer to the Normandy and away from the dreadnought.

"EDI," Garrus called again, his mind now channeling other avenues of importance. "Is there anyone in the vicinity you can reach, any patrols? We're not going to be able to take this thing down by ourselves."

The AI was quick with its answer. "Again Captain, I have already taken the liberty of sending a message to the nearest geth and quarian fleets. They have not yet responded."

The turian nodded grimly and did his best to focus on the task at hand, dodging more oncoming Reaper attacks and trying to forget about the engine's impending destruction. He looked at a rear sensor and lurched - the dreadnought was picking up in its pace and becoming dangerously close. If it picked up any more range, "dodging" was going to be out of the question.

"Sensors indicate an aesthetically pleasing view nearby, organic lifeforms may wish to take note," the VI chirped as they came upon a vast mountain range. Lurking in the distance behind it, he could seen the faint outline of a familiar frigate. Garrus slammed the engines and jumped into the atmosphere, flying up in the air with great distance and just coming meters away from the hull being fried by a skyward laser. The turian shifted the vehicle's tilt in the air and landed on the midpoint of the mountain range. He hopped successively, doing his best to gain traction of out the protruding rock. A shower of stone fell in front of them and onto the Hammerhead as a laser carved into the protruding land.

The Normandy had come into distance now, with the mouth-like entrance to the cargo bay hanging wide. Garrus tried to forget the towering dreadnought behind him and put every ounce of energy into this last lift - the Hammerhead shot out of the rubble like a rocket, careening in the air. The Normandy dived at an angle and swallowed it up, blurring by the Reaper just in time, dodging another death ray.

The four of them rushed out of the Hammerhead, having heard the loose bits of rubble strain and crackle within the engine. They barreled out of the vehicle as plumes of hot smoke and flame filled the cargo bay. The quarian, turian, platform, and thief all took cover behind various objects, shuttles, and procurement consoles - when the Hammerhead finally exploded, its sharp fragments flew "harmlessly" into metal crates and walls, piercing no flesh or aware machine.

The other aware machine, however, was still a problem. "Close the hangar," Garrus called into his dead comm. EDI relayed the message for him instead as Joker began the command to lift the hangar's mouth, losing a few crates of cargo that fell out the raised sides. The four rushed into the elevator and up to the cockpit, racing to get a better sense of what the dreadnought was doing.

Legs churning, Garrus and company got to the pilot's chair. "What's the situation?" Garrus panted, frantically trying to prepare himself for whatever bad news he was about hear.

"It's completely off our radars," a shellshocked Joker told them. "The moment we got a response from the quarian patrol, it vanished."

"We lost a _Reaper?"_ the dumbfounded turian exclaimed.

"The moment it cloaked...it was just gone," Joker murmured. "Didn't leave a single trace."

They traveled cautiously, waiting for any sign of sneak attack. But the retaliation never came.


End file.
